Tag Archives: trust

MOLLY AND ME – WALKING OR BALKING?

April 13, 2025Christian Lifeobedience, trust, walkLuella Campbell

Walkies” can sometimes be a test of willpower between Molly and me. When we started our daily walking routine, Molly hated the harness. I tried one that went over her torso. It didn’t work because she easily pulled out of it.

Problem!

Next, we tried the neck/body harness. It worked better except for the time when she got out of it while we were walking on the pavement down the main road! Freedom!!! Off she went in a flurry of excitement. She was free to run…anywhere! And ran she did, across the street and back, several times, especially when she wanted to face, at close quarters but on the other side of the gate, of course, that BIG dog that irritated her the most!

Fortunately, we were close to the side street that took us back home. I nonchalantly walked down the road and, true to habit, she followed me until we reached our own gate.

The next time she escaped her harness, now a few yours older, she stood dead still, looked up at me and asked, with her eyes, “Now what must I do?” I quickly secured her in her harness, grateful that she had come of age!

These days, my mature older dog has another way of enforcing her reluctance to walk…she puts on brakes on all four legs, as efficiently as the ABS braking system in my car! I know that part of her problem is the lesion in her spine that sometimes makes walking painful. However, it’s that look of defiance when she puts on brakes that makes me think it’s also a power struggle.

So, I ask her, “Molly, are you walking or balking?”

How like us when we don’t want to do God’s will! We put on our inner brakes with that attitude of defiance that says, “No, I don’t want to do it!”

I find this attitude rising up in me when I need to put right something I have done wrong. My pride, my ego, my perceived reputation is at stake. I must defend myself at all costs!

What about those times when the Lord requires me to do something that will cost me? Someone needs help. My involvement may cost me time, effort, money or whatever the Lord asks of me. My first response may be…brakes on all four paws! It may take a little time for me to release the brakes and do as I am told!

It’s a long, hard lesson for me to learn to walk with God, not to balk at God. Sometimes my old, emotional pain gets in the way of my willingness to obey. I take time to deal with the “what ifs” of reluctance or fear, my “no” of unbelief, my hesitance to cast myself on the Lord and step into the unknown.

God’s ministry in our hearts is, probably, 90% focused on teaching us faith, trust, reliance on Him because He is faithful, what He says is true, and what He wants of us is obedience without fear. He is always working, in all things, for our good and His glory.

Although Molly can’t understand that walking is for our good, I CAN understand that my Father is always working what is good for me. Why, then, am I balking instead of walking with the Lord? It’s that old nature again, the self-will with which I was born. It takes a lifetime of learning to accept the “leash” of obedience and walk where the Master leads me.

GLIMPSES OF PAUL – 4

October 5, 2024Bible StudyI have learned, trust, we knowLuella Campbell

PAUL – THE APOSTLE

Phase four of Paul’s journey had begun. Called, equipped, sent…were behind him. Now it was time for real learning in “the school of hard knocks”. God told Ananias, in Damascus, at the commencement of Paul’s new life,

Acts of the Apostles 9:15-16 NLT
[15] “But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. [16] And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”

But, did Paul know that a big part of his journey would be suffering?

Not likely, since the Holy Spirit told Ananias, “I will show him…”, not “tell him.” Paul would encounter suffering and learn about overcoming, one day at a time. In school, learning comes first, then testing. In the school of life, testing first, then the lesson follows.

There is a recurring theme running through Paul’s letters, sometimes not stated but still evident in the things he wrote. “We know…”, or “I have learned…” revealing how autobiogahical his letters were. Woven into his theology is a treasure trove of personal experience which made his teaching and counsel authentic.

It was Paul’s theology, hammered out in his daily life, that made him the man he was. In Arabia, he was given the gospel, a precious deposit, like the deposit of valuables entrusted to the vault of a bank, to guard against corruption, to live out in his daily life, and to pass on to the world. It was a commitment he took seriously until the end of his days.

Paul learned much through his unfolding understanding of the gospel, too much to include here. Let’s examine a few of the most valuable lessons he passed on to us.

Paul learned to be a son.

Why do I mention this lesson first in order of priority?

Before Paul could pass on anything about the gospel, he had to know who he was in Christ. He had to be absolutely secure in his own identity to live it out and to teach it to others.

To understand sonship, Paul had to study Jesus to discover sonship’s meaning from Him, the one true son of God. Jesus is the blueprint of sonship for all who believe in Him because the Father’s goal is to create a family of sons and daughters who perfectly replicate the blueprint.

Romans 8:29 NLT
[29] “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn (Greek “prototokos”, meaning prototype) among many brothers and sisters.”

The learning process became increasingly clear to him through…guess what! The “all things” of his daily life, including what he suffered!

So, Paul could write, with conviction,

Romans 8:28 NLT
[28] “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

How did Paul learn this precious truth? By looking back! “Life is lived forwards but understood backwards,” so I read once on a fridge magnet. How true this is! It’s only when we look back and honestly process the tough times we encounter, that we begin to see the good that has come out of each experience. It’s this realisation that hones our trust in God.

I don’t know when this truth dawned on Paul’s mind, perhaps months, even years into his Christian experience. However, for Paul, and for us, this is the foundation lesson for life, our faith in God that sets us on the path to knowing God as our Father. All of life is about destination and the way. We either don’t know where we are going, i.e., the purpose of life… and how we will get there, i.e., trust in ourselves… or we know and believe what God has told us in His Word…our destination to become true sons in God’s forever family, and the way to get there… Jesus.

It was Jesus’s implicit trust in God as His Father that set Him on course and steadied Him throughout His journey to the cross. Even with His final breath, His faith never wavered.

Luke 23:46 NLT
[46] “Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.”

Who better, then, to follow if we are to reach “Father’s house”?

John 14:6 NIV
[6] “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

When we learn what trust is…taking our hands off and leaning our full weight on Jesus, all other lessons are thrown in for good measure and worth learning. Trusting God as His sons and daughters requires two important steps and takes suffering to teach us. You see, suffering keeps our feet on the ground and our eyes on Jesus.

Again we look at Jesus, our blueprint.

Hebrews 5:7-9 NIV
[7] “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent SUBMISSION. [8] SON though he was, he learned OBEDIENCE from what he suffered [9] and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him… “

Did you get the sequence? Submission and obedience, the hallmarks of every true son of God, are the lessons of suffering. Get these and your security as a son is established.

Paul learned this lesson the hard way too.

2 Corinthians 12:7b -10 NIV
[7]”… Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. [8] Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. [9] But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. [10] That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul learned to lean his weight on God! He learned, through suffering, how inadequate he was for the task.

This first and most significant lesson, is the foundation of our fellowship and interaction with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our faith will wobble until we are secure in our indentity and in our attitude… submission and obedience as sons and daughters of God…

MOLLY AND ME – TRUST

December 28, 2017Christian Lifecharacter, faithfulness, promises, trustLuella Campbell

Molly is almost fourteen months old now.

She reminds me of Abraham.

When God called Abraham to leave his home country and go to a land He would show him, Abraham didn’t know God but he went as God instructed him. It took him many years and many mistakes and times of mistrust to get to know God. When the final test came, “Go and sacrifice your beloved son, Isaac, on the mountain I will show you,” Abraham didn’t hesitate. He trusted God implicitly despite the enormity of what God asked him to do. His years of walking with God and getting to know Him built an unshakeable faith in the faithfulness of the God he could not see but trusted to do the best for him.

Molly hasn’t reached Abraham’s level of trust yet, but she’s getting there. When she came to me as a tiny six-week-0ld puppy, she didn’t know me and I didn’t know her. In the year that we have been together, we have got to know each other and her trust in me is growing. For instance, she knows that, when I roast a chicken, some of it will be hers. Chicken is her all-time favourite meat and I could never ignore that expectant little creature who sits patiently waiting, tantalised by the smell of the delicacy, for her share.

Molly is beginning to understand human language. If I use the same words often enough, accompanied by the action, she responds with great enthusiasm to my instructions. If I tell her to “Go play,” she runs outside to look for her doggy friend. When I tell her, “Let’s go walkies,” she rushes to the gate and waits for me to put on her harness – a necessity for an energetic little dog who wants to take on all the neighbourhood canines, big or small.

She loves to sit with me on my recliner, snuggling in beside me with the anticipation of a nap while I do what ever I am doing at the time. She sometimes taps me on the leg to let me know she’s there and ready for me to pick her up. She often jumps high enough for me to see her beside my chair, then backs off and teases me by staying just out of reach. When she is ready, she comes near enough and willing for me to hoist her onto my lap.

When I leave her at home to go on an errand, she trusts me enough to let me go without a fuss if I give her a meaty bone to chew while I am away. She makes no attempt to follow me to the car because she knows that I will return.

Over the many years of my walk with the Lord, God has used many varied and sometimes difficult and painful experiences to teach me to trust Him. Trust is never automatic – it has to be learned by getting to know the character of the one whom you trust. If I were to fail Molly by ignoring her needs or failing to keep my promise, would she still trust me? She knows that I love her. How does she know? Apart from the many assurances of my love, the cuddles and kisses, I take care of her, meet all her needs and always pay attention to her when she “tells” me what she wants.

Of one thing I am very sure, God loves me. Apart from the declarations of His love in His Word, I have a lifetime of experience of His care, provision, faithfulness to His promises and blessing over and beyond anything I could have ever anticipated or dreamed of. Can God be trusted? Yes! A thousand times, yes! I have reached a point in my life of 77 years, that I can rest in Him no matter what happens because I have proved and I know that, in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

God’s on a mission – to conform me to the image of His Son. And that’s enough for me. I trust Him. Do you?

Carefree, But Not Careless

May 8, 2016Christian Lifecarefree, here or there, now or then, this or that, trustLuella Campbell

CAREFREE, BUT NOT CARELESS

Carefree is the attitude of a child. Why is it possible for a child to be carefree in the world we live in? Is it not because children leave all their cares to daddy while they simply enjoy life?

Is it possible that God’s children can live carefree lives in spite of the turmoil around us?

Jesus told His disciples a parable to illustrate the different ways in which people respond to His Word. His story was simply an observation. People are all different, and they react differently in every situation. He recognised four different ways in which people treat the Word they hear, like the seed a farmer sows in his field.

The first group is completely indifferent to what God has to say. His Word has no effect on them. It’s like the proverbial “water off a duck’s back.” Jesus called it “hard ground”. The Word falls on the ground, bounces, rolls away, and lies there until hungry birds snap it up. Why is this ground – or these hearts – so hard and unresponsive that the seed cannot penetrate and take root? Ground becomes hard when, like a people walking on a footpath it is constantly trodden on.

How many people around you, even you yourself have been trodden on through the course of your life by careless people? Perhaps from early childhood, you have been neglected, rejected or even maligned by your parents and those closest to you until you have become so hard that you are indifferent both to people and to God. Your number one priority is to survive and survive you will even at the expense of others. God’s Word means nothing to you. Your defences are so strong that you allow nothing to penetrate.

Some people are like ground that has a thin layer of topsoil, but underneath and close to the surface, is a layer of impenetrable rock. Seed germinates readily enough, given the right circumstances, but the hard rock prevents the roots from anchoring the plant and finding moisture and nutrients. As soon as the hot sun beats down, the plant withers and dies in its hostile environment.

I lived for eight years in an area of my country where limestone lay just under the surface of the topsoil. Gravediggers had a hard time because they had to hack through the limestone to prepare for a burial. Few trees grew in that area because the roots had a hard time penetrating the rock. Fruit trees grew for a few years and then perished because they lost the battle against the stone.

Why are some people like stony ground? I think they have learned to be opportunists. There are many people around us whose primary goal is to take care of number one. They latch onto anything that is to their advantage. Unfortunately, much of today’s so-called “gospel” preaching presents Jesus as the panacea for all ills. “Come to Jesus. He will forgive your sin and solve all your problems.” They grab the opportunity for a quick fix, but when life deals them a curve ball and Jesus does not do what they expect, they walk away and try something else.

The world is full of people like the third kind of soil.

Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful (Mark 4:18-19).

I think that the third kind of soil is the pernicious problem in most people’s hearts, even ours who believe that we are true children of God. Let’s examine the truth of what Jesus was saying.

Three attitudes in our hearts leave no room for the seed to grow.

“The worries of this life” cause our minds to be split between “here” and “there”. We are here in person, but our thoughts are consumed with something that is there. We are caught up in two never-ending circles – “If only” – regrets about the past or “what if” – fears about the future. We read or hear the Word, but we are somewhere else, wrestling with problems, worries, issues for which we have no answer. The Word falls down among the thorns of worry but is soon choked and dies because our cares about the past or the future have more influence than the Word and we are no longer here.

“The deceitfulness of wealth” causes our minds to be split between “now” and “then”. Our bodies are in the “now” but our minds are dwelling on ”then” – when we have made more money, when we are free of debt, when we have enough to buy everything we want. Two questions remain unanswered: how much is “enough”, and when is “then”? The promises that the possession of money make are an illusion. When did wealth ever solve the problems we face or satisfy the emptiness of our hearts?

What about “the desire for other things”? Split again! We have “this” but we want “that”. The Bible calls this covetousness – an insult to God since He showers His blessings on us daily. Covetousness robs us of enjoying what we have by focusing our attention on what others have.

There is a subtle form of covetousness in the body of Christ – competition over spiritual gifts. In some parts of the church, the emphasis is on “gifts” to the extent that this one covets that one’s gift because that one gets more publicity, attention, accolades etc., instead of using his or her own gift for the benefit of others. The emphasis is on what I can gain rather than on what I can give.

God yearns for one thing from His children – trust. He considers our faith in Him more precious than gold and puts it to the test in many different ways to strip off our doubts, fears and unbelief. Paul Young, author of the bestseller, “The Shack”, said in an interview with Nicky Gumbel, that one or his two remaining prayers is “Papa, I don’t want to be an old man one day, looking back on my life and wondering, ‘What would it have been like to the take the risk of actually trusting, to take the risk of relationship and community?’”

Staking everything on the Father and the reliability of what He said sets us free from carrying the cares that prevent us from really living now. That’s what life is all about – living carefree in the care of God. He wants us to be carefree – but not careless. Careless living is degrading and demeaning because we drop our standards and step outside of grace. However, carefree means that we have traded imaginations about things that don’t exist for the reality of our Father’s faithfulness to His promises.

Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you (1 Pet. 5:7).

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Prayer And Obedience

March 8, 2016Christian Lifefear of the Lord, He learned obedience, suffered, trustLuella Campbell

PRAYER AND OBEDIENCE

This leads to our fourth important attitude towards God as we engage with Him in prayer – obedience. God rates obedience above everything else because obedience encompasses all the other right attitudes we need to have towards Him. Obedience is the ultimate evidence of our holy fear of the Lord. Again Jesus is our model.

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Although He was a son, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him. (Heb. 5: 7-9)

I think this is the one we struggle with the most. Why? Is it because we connect obedience with understanding? Before we act in response to God’s instructions, we demand to know why. We will trust God and do what He requires of us if we know that it makes sense and will turn out right in the end.

Abraham was known as the friend of God. He did not respond to God’s command like that. What God asked him to do made no sense to him at all but he obeyed anyway. “Go and burn you son on an altar to me!” How crazy was that, especially when the son he was to sacrifice was the one who was born to an elderly and barren couple after twenty-five years of waiting! “God, do you know what you are asking? Do you know what you are doing?”

Obedience is the mark of one who truly fears God. Abraham obeyed and went without hesitation, willing to obey God to the last drop of Isaac’s blood because he knew what it meant to fear God, a holy fear because he knew God and he trusted Him because he knew that God knew what He was doing and why.

God told Jesus to give Himself over to the religious leaders to torture and crucify. Really? “God, this is your Messiah, your Son. Do you know what you are asking of Him? Do you know what you are doing? This surely has no good in it for Him. What is the point of having Him killed? A dead Son will be of no use to you.” That’s how we humans reason. God is not under any obligation to explain. The reasons may only become clear later on when we have done what He asked us to do.

There is one man in the Bible who was given the honour of the title “A man after my own heart.” Imagine that! In spite of the many theories preachers put forward about the reason for this honour, the Bible gives us God’s take on it.

He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David, son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ (Acts 13: 22b)

Was David a perfect man? Far from it! He messed up on more than one occasion, but at those times when “he enquired of the Lord,” as he so often did when he needed help from God, he did what God told him to do and he prevailed. He became the greatest of all the kings of Israel and the model of a godly king for both the southern and northern kingdoms.

In spite of his failures, David adored God. He longed after Him. He gazed on His beauty in the creation around him and in the tabernacle where he went to worship. God filled David’s horizon; He was his rock; his shelter, his source and his everything. He sang about Him; he worshipped Him; he danced before Him; he celebrated Him; he even complained and mourned over Him when God seemed far away and non-responsive to him, but he never gave up on Him or put Him out of His mind for any longer than a moment.

“A man after my own heart!” That surely fitted David as the one Old Covenant, ordinary, sinful human being who was “stuck” on God, and God loved it! With his limited vision and experience before the cross event, David was just like Jesus. He could not get enough of God.

How much more should we, who have the mercy of God right in our faces, and every opportunity with the Holy Spirit within us, to become like our rabbi, be stuck on God. What greater privilege is there than to do His will and to see Him kingdom come, to deliver people from bondage to sin and to give them brand new lives under His rule?

What if we really feared the Lord because we knew Him and trusted Him? Would we be, like the great men of the Bible, be willing to obey Him promptly and without question because we were sure that He would ask nothing of us that were not for our good or His glory?