Grace operationalized

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Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. (Corrie Ten Boom)

Trust the Lord completely, and don’t depend on your own knowledge. With every step you take, think about what he wants, and he will help you go the right way. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

How well we know God will determine how well we are able to trust him when things are going a little 'willy-nilly' in our lives. We cannot develop trust in the moment - it is developed in the long haul. The more we put into this relationship with Jesus, getting to know him better and better with each passing day, the more we will trust him with 'willy-nilly' seems to be the agenda of the day.

With every step we take, do we focus on what God wants, or what comes naturally or the easiest? If we are honest here, there are times when we are faced with the two choices, and we don't always choose wisely. For example, when a person drops some bomb on us, words meant to undo us or cause us to enter into an argument, do we focus on what God wants (the soft answer or the turning of the other cheek), or do we just see the open door to the argument and 'enter in' like there was no tomorrow?

The more we trust Jesus with our today, the easier it will be for us to trust him with our future. This type of trust isn't built quickly - it comes over time. Yes, we can trust Jesus with everything, but learning to do just that takes a bit of effort on our parts! We want to hold onto what we 'know' when faced with the 'unknown', so until we get to know Jesus better, we might just choose the easiest path over the less traveled one.

Don't depend upon your own knowledge - this is key to learning to trust Jesus. His knowledge supersedes ours. It isn't limited by what is seen or heard. It excels in uncovering truth because trust is built on truth. Thinking about what he wants is only possible when we have been able to uncover truth about how he acts, how grace would respond when it is 'fully operationalized' in the hard moments. We get to know that by observing what is said about his Son as he lived on this earth. The more we get to know Jesus, the closer we get to responding how he responded. In other words, 'grace operationalized'. Just sayin!

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