Day Fifty-Two – February 18, 2020  

 

Read:

Mark 8:11-13

 

I asked Siri on my Iphone, “Is God real?”  Siri replied, “It’s all a mystery”.  I wondered if Alexa, my smart speaker, might indeed be smarter.  “Alexa, is God real?”. She said, “People all have their own views on religion.”

It feels like that’s what the Pharisees are doing with Jesus.  “Give us a sign Jesus.  Show us you are real.”  They (and we often) look for a God they can codify, define, dissect and observe under a microscope, a God who will fit neatly in a box.

 

I like what Blaise Pascal said,  “Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a gift from God.”  I think he is right.  Faith is a gift from God.  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” says Hebrews 11:1.

 

What if, for today, we focused not on proof of God, but in trust of God?

 

Author Brennan Manning, in his book Ruthless Trust writes:

Ruthless trust is an unerring sense, way deep down, that beneath the surface agitation, boredom, and insecurity of life, it’s gonna be all right.  Ill winds may blow, more character defects may surface, sickness may visit, and friends will surely die; but a stubborn, irrefutable certainty persists that God is with us and loves us in our struggle to be faithful.  A nonrational, absolutely true intuition perdures that there is something unfathomably big in the universe, something that points to Someone who is filled with peace and power, love and undreamed-of creativity – Someone who inevitably will reconcile all things in himself.”[1]

Maybe all we can do is keep walking down the road, trusting in God.

 

Music:

Herod’s Song from Jesus Christ Superstar

Trust in You by Lauren Daigle

Prayer Focus:

Trusting in God

 

Grace and peace,
Pastor Karen Bruins

[1] Manning, Brennan. Ruthless Trust: the Ragamuffins Path to God. New York: HarperCollins e-books, 2010. p.180