Past Posts My Journey With Cancer, Part 49, Trust in God by David Maddox
The CT Scan and blood tests showed that prayers continue to be answered and I remain a “miracle man” as God graciously has caused my stage four stomach cancer not to grow or spread since the last Scan, and my blood chemistry is near normal. It is all Him as the doctor admits that he does not know how to cure me and the cancer is not operable. All I can do is thank Him for the opportunity to continue in His service hoping to be a part of a great revival in America and around the world that we so desperately need. I am often reminded of a Time to Revive event when Kyle Martin kept asking us “Are Your Ready for Christ to Return?” He asked over and over and finally I walked up to him and said, “Yes and no. I am ready personally, but am not ready because so many people don’t know Him and would perish if He returned now.” We have to tell them and that I believe is why God has allowed me to live.
Somehow we Followers of Jesus have lost our way because we have lost our focus. I hear more anger and frustration – discouragement at what seems to be happening to America. Politics controls our lives and emotions. We look for an earthly ruler – a Godly President as the answer to our concerns and when we see people we don’t even believe are Christians as the main candidates we are discouraged and depressed as though we are without hope for we are without a “leader”. But how foolish is that? We have forgotten that Jesus is our leader and where is our home. America is a place of temporary residence. It is not home. The New Jerusalem is our home (Revelation 21:10-14). You will look hard in prophesy to even find an argument for a reference to America. The closest may be Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in Babylon. There the Prophet says to those living in a pagan country:
“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.’” (Jeremiah 29:4-7).
While we are here we have work to do for all of us who are Followers of Jesus were called to be made “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). If you have ever been fishing you know that you go and look for where the fish are. You don’t set and wait for them to come to you to be caught. So the command is to go not to sit (Matthew 28:19-20) and we need to be about it for the time may be short before He returns.
The focus must return to Jesus our Lord and to trusting Him only. Here is a brief outline of what that means. We must shift our focus from a country – a government – any political leader to absolute trust (faith) in our Lord.
TRUST IN GOD
- Trust is in a Person – the Lord – in God (Proverbs 3:5-6) – faith in God (Mark 11:22-25)
- We trust in who He is – who we have come by experience to know (Exodus 14:31) (Psalm 145:13) (Isaiah 12:2) (Psalm 9:10) (Hebrews 6:18) (Hebrews 10:22)
III. Results of failure to trust – absence of faith:
- Sin (Numbers 20:12)
- Absence of God’s power (Matthew 13:58) – failure (Mark 9:17-29 )
- What flows from trust – from faith:
- Access to God’s power (Romans 15:13)
- God’s blessings (Matthew 9:29)
- Blessings which flow to others (Mark 2:5) (Luke 5:20)
- Peace (John 16:33)
- What level of trust – faith is God looking for (Matthew 8:5-13) Luke 7:1-10) (Matthew 15:21-28)
- The great question (Luke 18:8)
Thank you for your prayers and partnership in this journey.
About David Maddox – After a legal career in both Texas and Arizona that spanned over 40 years as a civil litigator, God called David to leave his law practice and work full time as Discipleship Director for Time to Revive. That call is really the fruit of decades of prayer for revival and teaching God’s Word, writing discipleship materials and seeking to make disciples. David married Janet Whitehead in 1976 and they minister together from their Phoenix home. God has blessed them with four children and thus far seven grandchildren.
