Extreme Trust

Twenty-six-year-old Nancy's life was fast falling apart when she approached Pastor Frank. For three days in a row she came back, pouring out her troubles. Her marriage was failing despite the efforts of several counselors. She had her baby girl with her as she pleaded for help.

Finally, Pastor Frank said, "Nancy, here is something that could help," and handed her this:

"The Father's presence encircled Christ, and nothing befell Him but that which infinite love permitted for the blessing of the world. Here was His source of comfort, and so it is for us. He who is imbued with the Spirit of Christ abides in Christ. The blow that is aimed at him falls upon the Savior, who surrounds him with His presence. Whatever comes to him comes from Christ. He has no need to resist evil, for Christ is his defense. Nothing can touch him except by our Lord's permission, and 'all things' that are permitted 'work together for good to them that love God.' ( Romans 8:28 )" — Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p. 71

The following day Nancy returned — with her non-Christian husband. Pastor Frank told them that if just one of them followed these principles their marriage could be saved, and if both did, they could have a relationship beyond what they thought was possible.

Nancy left with a firm commitment to accept everything that touched her life as coming from Christ. Her husband did not. In fact, he did everything he could to make her life a living hell. But Nancy held firm. It took three months for his heart to soften. Then something neither of them had thought possible began to happen — heaven seemed to open in their home.

Then tragedy struck.

While Nancy and her husband were sightseeing in the mountains, their baby girl was left with her grandmother. When grandma woke from an accidental nap, the baby had swallowed a bottle of pills left within reach. By the time Nancy and her husband rushed her to the emergency room, it was too late. Within an hour, their baby was gone.

Church members flooded to Nancy's home with sympathy. And as she received it, something familiar and dark began rising in her chest — the same bitterness and resentment she had known before Pastor Frank. It hit her: she had accepted everything as coming from Christ — except this.

She went to her bedroom, fell to her knees, and was completely honest with God. "I don't like or understand why this happened, but I do trust You, Father. You know what You are doing. Please help my lack of trust."

Paul said he had learned contentment — it wasn't a gift handed to him fully formed ( Philippians 4:11 ). David said it simply: "Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want" ( Psalm 23:1 ). And the psalmist described the soul that has found that sufficiency as a weaned child — no longer restless, no longer crying out, just quietly at rest ( Psalm 131:2 ). That is what walking with God produces: an inner well that doesn't run dry ( John 4:14 ), and a heart that stops scanning the room for sympathy because it has already found what it needed.

A few minutes later the doorbell rang — more visitors with condolences. Nancy raised her hand. "I don't want to be rude, but I don't want your sympathy. A year ago I gave my life and my daughter's life to God. Please — pray with me and praise God for working in our lives."

Word got out that Nancy didn't want sympathy.

Her in-laws eventually came for a visit and told her they had been watching her for the past year — watching for resentment over the death of their granddaughter and finding none. "If God can work a transformation like this," they said, "we believe He can do it in us too. Can we come to church with you?" They were later baptized. Not long after, Nancy's husband came home from work one day and told her she was not the same girl he had married. He wanted what he saw in her — and he too was baptized.

The same sun that melts butter hardens clay. The trials of this life, yielded to the Spirit of God ( Galatians 4:6 ), do the same work in us — if we let them.

I wonder what difference it would have made if Nancy had made different choices?
I wonder what difference it would make if I were to always show extreme trust in God?

"Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy — to the only wise God our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, both now and forever. Amen." ( Jude 1:24-25 )