Is Trusting Jesus as Simple as it Sounds?

by erika haveman

I think trusting Jesus is as simple as it sounds.

I don’t think I’m anything special or arrogant to share this story, because if I don’t recount it I know my friend would do it for me – she likes to remind me of it from time to time. A couple years back this friend and I were discussing the logistics for feeding icecream to a 1,000 rowdy teenagers. She’s a brilliant planner and organizer and it didn’t take much verbal processing to figure out the plan of setting up tables and serving the delicious cold dessert. What concerned her the most was whether or not the icecream would run out before all the kids got their treat. Without even thinking I responded to her anxiety by saying, “Did you read the story about what Jesus did with the fish and the loaves?” To me there was no doubt in my mind that this task of feeding icecream to bottomless pit youths was part of God’s plan, so obviously God was going to be faithful. In fact we’d probably have leftovers (which I think we did).

When it comes to looking at other people’s lives, ministry I’m leading or teachings I’m giving I have no doubt that God will come through. Why? Because He’s God. If I am submitting myself to Him with all of my life – offering myself as a living sacrifice – why wouldn’t my offering be accepted and blessed? I don’t always do it perfectly and I undoubtedly fail often, but my efforts never detract from God’s accomplishments. Why? Because He is the one who is literally do all of it anyways.

I’m just as human as you and I have a real hard time submitting some things to God. As most searching, seeking young adults I don’t know what my future holds. Living and working as a Canadian citizen with YWAM in the USA means I need a visa. Maybe some of you followed along a couple of years ago as I hit wall after wall in an attempt to get this visa. I did eventually get the visa, but it’s up for renewal and I have to decide if I’m “supposed to stay or supposed to leave.” My visa expires several months from now, but the renewal process can take months. I could spend most of my days contemplating what’s next: “Do I stay in Montana? Leave? If I leave, what will I do? Go to Australia? Lead another team to Taiwan? Move to Alberta for a good while? But what about my future with the family business? What if a guy enters the picture? What if he’s American? What if I’m supposed to stay in America? I don’t want to…but what if God says that’s what I’m supposed to do? Why can’t God tell me right now what’s next? Can’t I just move to Ontario and live off the grid? But then how am I suffering for the Gospel? I need a holiday…”

Literally my brain.

But how is this me giving myself as a living sacrifice to God at all? This is me worrying and overthinking.

Amos 3:7 suggests that God knows everything, all plans. Do I really trust this? Do I trust that He won’t hide His future for me? If this is the case, I have absolutely no reason to worry. If I am living my life day in and day out as a living sacrifice doesn’t God promise to take care of all my needs? He takes care of the birds of the sky, and how much more will He take care of His prized, precious creations, the only living, breathing beings in whom He dared place His image?

It’s interesting really…in the New Testament the people Paul writes to don’t ever seem to concerned with God’s future plans for their personal lives. They are more concerned with knowing when Jesus is coming back. They are so much more focused on Jesus than the calling God has on them. I’m not saying individuals don’t have specific gifts, talents, calls, purposes, etc… but we put a lot of stock in those things. It almost sometimes feels like all of our eggs are in one basket. Some of those eggs are questions like, “God, what’s next for me?” and “God, what do you have for me?”

I began to ask these questions [on this blog] a few weeks ago, but I thought I would expand now. There’s a famous quote by John F. Kennedy that goes,

“My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

I really think Jack was onto something there. As Christians we shouldn’t be asking what God can do for us. We need to remember He has already DONE ALL THINGS for us. What more do we need than eternal life? What more direction do we need than what is in the Bible? Just being honest, sometimes neglect the Word because I think what would be BETTER is hearing God’s voice directly tell me what to do. This is a dangerous road to walk. It’s not wrong to recognize that you are unique and God created YOU to do something that nobody else will do. But, honestly, that will naturally happen if you live your life faithful to Him. We only have one shot to be faithful with the smallest of things.

Things only happen once.

Nobody else will serve coffee to that crabby old lady at 3:23pm on Wednesday afternoon ever again in her life. Nobody noticed that you smiled at her again – it feels like the thousandth time you’ve tried to crack her shell. And today it almost looked like her lips turned slightly upwards. And now it’s 3:24pm on Wednesday afternoon and you’re moved onto the next customer. It doesn’t seem like much, but your faithfulness to show kindness is changing someone’s life because your best efforts are all God’s accomplishment’s anyways – right? Right.

So stop worrying about what’s next and stay faithful to what you have. Stop asking, “What can God for me?” and start asking, “What am I doing for God?” And KEEP DOING THAT and trust that when you need to change He’ll tell you.

To slightly alter the famous quote by John F. Kennedy: