IN WHOM AND IN WHAT ARE YOU TRUSTING?

IN WHOM AND IN WHAT ARE YOU TRUSTING?

Part 1

People think that the world is changing rapidly and borders are moved quickly and things that before was considered safe is not safe anymore. I am born in Oslo, Norway and I was not living so far from the center of the town. I remember that I walked from my home and down to the center of Oslo. I was only 10 years of age. I was going to the dentist. I might have taken the tram, but the point is that I would never have allowed a ten years’ old child to go alone in the center of the town today. They have drug addicts there and some criminals. Some places might even be dangerous for adults.

When I was young, one thought one could trust a person calling himself Christian, but that is not the case today. The Spirit of Truth is sometimes under a cover and it is not so sure that a Christian is not lying. We have to be thankful that God hasn’t used the same judgment as He did with Ananias and Sapphira. We do not know when that will happen again. (Read Acts 5)

What are you trusting? Can you trust your partner or children? Can your children trust you? The truth is that many can trust their children, their spouse and the children their parents, but quite a few cannot. If children grow up in an environment where the adults are lying, they will have lots of question-marks and they will not feel secure. What is true and what is not? Adults are sometimes lying to children in order to make a joke, but children do not understand abstract jokes before they are quite old. A relative of mine thought that a huge tank was full of soda because the father said so.

I have been home with small children and I have travelled abroad as a missionary and many of my friends were worried about me and wondered how I would manage as a pensioner. “Are you not worried about the points you need to get a good pension?” Once after such a telephone, I went to a prayer meeting. One of the members had a prophetic gift and he asked me if he could give me a world from the Lord. He did and the Lord said: “I will take care of your pension.” He did that even if I have a little less than my colleagues, but I manage. Many put their trust in how much they earn and how many points they can collect for their pension. Both parents work in quite a few families. They get children, but they work so much that they hardly see their children during the week. Others are afraid to get children in fear of not having enough money. Others are not sleeping since they worry so much over their economy. I am not saying that we do not have quite a lot of poverty in the world and that can cause serious problems, but we must not forget that God provided daily food when the Israelites were in the desert. Jesus had 5000 listening to Him and He wanted to give them food. The disciples said that they had five loaves of bread and two fishes, but Jesus can make miracles and He blessed it and it got to be more than enough to everybody. The Bible has promised us more than enough and they had 12 baskets left with food. Jesus made the impossible possible.

 Do you believe that God can perform miracles?  

Some people live their entire life earning as much money as possible. Maybe they think that money will make them happy. I can understand that lack of money can cause some worries, but God has told us not to worry. He has taken care of nature and why shouldn’t He be able to take care of us when it comes to food and clothing? I have been a lot to India. I have met the worst of poverty and the most of luxury there. I would often hear more laughter from the poor people than the rich. We read in Matthew 6:24 that we shouldn’t serve two masters. We should not serve God and mammon. It is not written that it is sinful to have money, but if we live for money and not for God, it gets wrong. We are thanking God for everybody giving richly to the kingdom of God.

Money will not in itself make you happy.  

Many churches are getting their income from asking the members to tithe. We can read about that in Malaki 3:10, but that belongs to the Old Testament. We read in the New Testament that everything belongs to the Lord. Jesus was not satisfied when the young, rich man didn’t want to give everything to the Lord. I really do not believe that the Lord wants us to have nothing, but He is looking for our attitudes. I believe that my time, my apartment, my car etc, belong to the Lord. I believe that I have received everything so that I can administrate them well and glorify God. I am working 5-6 hours every day for the Lord. I will not mention what I give in money since it says in the Bible that the left hand should not know what the right hand is giving. What I want to say is what we read in Galatians 2:20; “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” If you want to give ten percent of your income to the church, you are free to do so, but if the church-leaders make themselves dependent on tithing and not on God, something is wrong.

It is the Lord we should be dependent on.

RELY ON HIM!

Mother Else