Trust Obeys

There are intersections in life where I’ve felt my voice and my influence waning. When my children began driving, preparing for college, and marriage- moments when their heads were turned and I prayed that I’d said all the things that needed to be said, but more importantly, that they’d actually heard. And then there are moments like this one, when my youngest child goes in for a fifth brain surgery. Or when my daughter heads to the hospital to deliver her baby. And when I close my eyes as anesthesia takes hold before my own cancer surgery. In these moments I felt and still feel tangibly what it means to trust God. The crucial choice to obey beyond what I can see always follows these moments, stretching ever forward to that place where my faith will become sight.

Jesus cast a vision of heaven for His disciples. He was trying to help them and us realize that His Father’s home, His home, was spacious and being prepared for the arrival of many- not as guests- but as permanent residents. The twelve men closest to him were too overwhelmed by their own emotions and ideas about the kingdom of heaven to recognize Jesus as God with skin on in that moment. Jesus continued to patiently connect the dots for them. He said He didn’t have much time left for talk. He reminded them that He tells them these things before they happen so they will learn to trust Him.

“If you love me, obey my commandments.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.

He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.

The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him.

But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.

No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.

Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me.

Since I live, you also will live.

When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”

“All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.

Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me.

And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me.

I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again.

If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am.”

John 14:15-21, 23-26, 28 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.14.16-28.NLT

I believe that Jesus’s lengthy repetition of these facts was meant to soothe His disciples’ overwrought emotions in the way a parent holds the face of a young child gently between his or her hands and whispers everything is ok. I’m right here. It echoes King David’s “taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8) “You trust God,” Jesus says. “Trust also in Me.” (John 14:1)

“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

John 14:20 NIV

https://john.bible/john-14-20

“I’m here,” Jesus says. “I am with you. I will never leave you or forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) By My Spirit, I am in You. God can be trusted. Jesus can be trusted. His Word is Truth. (John 17:17) He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (John 14:6)

Trusting God is a choice I make daily. Today it looks like saying thank You to my Heavenly Father in front of my son and his wife as he recovers from his most recent surgery. Tonight it looks like opening my Bible to study God’s Word before bed. Tomorrow will bring other faith choices whose answers look like obedience. That’s what Jesus said. “If you love Me, obey my commandments. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. All who love me will do what I say.” This has been God’s standard all along.

“But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice?

Listen!

Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.”

1 Samuel 15:22 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/1sa.15.22.NLT

What does trusting God look like for you today? Trusting God and loving Jesus are synonymous with obedience. It all starts in His Word. It won’t make sense to everyone, but there is only One who is worthy of all praise, honor, glory, and power, forever and ever!

“Trust and obey,

for there’s no other way

to be happy in Jesus,

but to trust and obey.”

~John H. Sammis (1887)