Stephen preached on a little word which can make a big difference this morning – TRUST.
Stephen is a gadgets’ man! – he loves things like multitools (small enough to fit into a pocket but big enough to do a variety of jobs!)
When he first became interested in computers, they took up a whole room!
Today, he preached from an iPad which is much smaller and quite a lot more powerful:
In the same way that everything seems to be getting smaller these days, trust is a small word which has a big impact on our everyday lives. It’s often easier to trust ourselves than God. As we grow up, we become more skilled at doing things and end up saying ‘I can do that!’, but we need to understand that God wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives. When Jesus was in the wilderness, the devil tempted Him to tell the stones to become bread (Matt 4:3 TNIV), something He was definitely capable of doing (His later miracles clearly demonstrate His ability to feed thousands!) He refused to heed the temptation to do this for His own benefit, because He knew that ‘man does not live on bread alone’ (Matt 4:4 TNIV). Just because we can do something doesn’t mean to say we should. Jesus put His trust in God rather than trusting in His own ability – and if the Son of God lived that way, we definitely need to!
Trust needs to be the hallmark of our lives, whether facing situations where we feel we can do what is required or when facing situations where we don’t feel capable. Whenever, wherever and however we find ourselves, we need to trust in God. Prov 3:5 TNIV says ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.’ We have to be willing to trust God; when we do so, our confidence grows (Jer 17:7 TNIV says ‘Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.’) The challenge for us every day is not to go it alone, but to include God in everything we do and to trust Him in every situation.