If you really are children, why did your heavenly Father hand you the serpents of miscarriage?

If you are a daughter of the king, why are you still unmarried? If you are a child of God, why was your child born disabled? No sooner had the words washed over him at his baptism, “You are my beloved Son with you I am well pleased”(Luke 3:22), than Satan tempted him in the wilderness about his sonship, “ If you are the Son of God.” (Luke 4:3, 9). So, he swipes at the ring glimmering from the finger of the God’s Bride. He doesn’t want us to know deeply that his steadfast love is better than life (Psalm 63:3). While he delights to convince the merely polite church-attender, the worshiper of foreign gods, and the secular humanist that God unconditionally loves them, he steals this heavenly bread from the mouths of his true children. While it is the simplest lyrics to sing, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so,” it can be the hardest to trust. With Moses, too many saints live and die outside of this Promised Land, never tasting the milk and honey that is theirs just beyond the Jordan. Though he tells us this himself, we may struggle at times to believe he even likes us. Because of the cross, it does not deflate due to sin (Psalm 103:10). It spans from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 103:17). It is beyond comprehension (Ephesians 3:18–19). We sing, “Jesus, Jesus, Precious Jesus, Oh for grace to trust you more.”īut what are we trusting? Of the litany of things that we trust God for, the hardest to believe from day to day may be God’s love for us in Christ. We know God has done nothing to deserve our distrust. We get lost in our digital devices to numb the still small voice, “Come back to me.” We know we have strayed. We start to sleep in a little more, pray a little less, and avoid seasons of fellowship with other believers. We are tempted, as Lot’s wife, to look back.Īnd such distrust can come upon us subtly, rarely introducing itself properly. Chronic pain makes us skeptical whether he will help in time of need. Unanswered prayer makes us unsure of his care. Suffering tempts us to become suspicious of his governance. We wonder if God really hears our prayers. We believe in his goodness, truthfulness, promises, love. We may have journals full of stories that prove his faithfulness over and over. We have tasted and seen that he is sweet and his promises true. We have looked away from our own works and trusted Jesus alone. In simple faith, we have plunged ourselves beneath Calvary’s cleansing flood. At different times, in varying degrees, we stumble as we walk the narrow road. “I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)Īt one time or another, every saint this side of heaven has reason to cry with the father of the demonized boy, “I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

In christ alone chord piano