Letter Thirty-Eight on Trust

 THIRTY-EIGHT on Trust

My Dear Child:

This is a hard letter for me to write, but this is important.

Faith doesn’t come with a guarantee.

If you know much about me, you know I am all about faith. It’s been that way since the beginning.

I told Adam and Eve they could eat of every tree in the garden except for one. I gave them a stern warning to avoid the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. I hoped that they would take it by faith that I meant what I said. That is a dangerous tree and I wanted them to avoid it at all costs.

But they failed the faith test. They chose their own way and took from that tree.

I wanted faith. They wanted selfish desires.

The fruit on that tree looked very enticing, and I knew it would open a door that could never be closed again. I hoped they would take it by faith and obey when I said leave that one alone.

Faith is all about trusting me when you don’t see things clearly or have all the facts. Sometimes I want you to stop, sometimes I want you to lean out, or jump over the edge. You can’t always see the other side, but I want you to have faith in me.

Faith doesn’t come with a guarantee.

I’ll always allow you to make your own choices. If you want to open a forbidden door, you surely may. You won’t always like what’s on the other side, but I’ll let you open it if you choose.

I care and that is precisely why I put up some “Do Not Enter” signs along the way.

I can handle whatever comes your way ... today, tomorrow... forever. Just trust me with a little bit more of your life.

God,

P Michael Biggs 

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

When the Heart is Heavy, Then What?

When the Heart Is Heavy, Then What? 

I’m going to talk specifically to those of us who currently have or have had what we might call “A Heavy Heart”. Heavy hearts ain’t no fun, as we used to say in the hills of Tennessee.

I’ve often not known what to do in the middle of my heavy heart moments. Have you? Perhaps you’re going through one of those times even now, in this moment of reading this.

Heavy Heart times are caused by those circumstances in life that just about crush us to death. The load is so heavy, the burden is so awesomely great, and the issue looms very large. We find ourselves scratching our head, wringing our hands, and wondering if God is anywhere nearby and does He hear and see you and me, and even care about what in the world is happening right now, this very minute.

And then some well-meaning spiritual super-power comes along and says, “well, Honey, you just need to pray more.”

Pray? I can’t even tie my shoes for the weight of this “thing” I’m carrying. “Pray” you say. 

Here’s the thing.

When the heart is so heavy, and the weight of the world seems to be resting on your shoulders in the awful times of life, maybe, perhaps, all you and I can utter is HELP! Now I used all caps and an explanation mark, but sometimes it comes out “help”. Or perhaps

H. E. L. P. !

And do you know what? God hears that kind of prayer too. Oh my. Yes indeed.

I’ve prayed that prayer before. Once someone near to me relapsed on a drug addiction that I thought was well behind her. I was so unprepared for that experience. I didn’t know what to do nor where to turn. All I could utter was “help”. (Lower case intended)

Maybe today is the day you pray the most acceptable prayer ever uttered. It’s nothing fancy. It’s not long. It’s not profound. It’s not eloquent. It’s a great cry for the God of the universe to come down and touch you in some unique way that only you need in that moment. It is a miracle prayer of one word, and this one-word-prayer gets attention.

Is your life a train wreck?
Have you made some really horrible decisions?
Is your past about to catch up with you?
Are you in a despicable and deplorably situation and you don’t know which way to turn?

This I know. A prayer like “Help” spoken in great moments of desperation and with a sincere heart gets attention from God himself.

He already knows what you did, or said, and what you are doing or have done. He wants so much for you to turn around and come to Him. He’s listening for your call.

I believe that with my whole heart.

Ann Lamott said this in here book, Help Thanks Wow:

“Prayer means that, in some unique way,

we believe we’re invited into a relationship

with someone who hears us when we speak in silence.”

So, step right up. You don’t have to get dressed up, put on your shoes, wear a necktie or a string of pearls, or even smell pretty. Just approach and say the words as you turn toward God: HELP! Help. help.

I don’t know in what form God will answer, but in time He will answer. It may be through another person, or it may be an idea that pops into your own mind, but God hears.

God hears.

P Michael Biggs

Internet Church Blogsite

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

Sometimes We Think God Is Sick

 Sometimes We Think God Is Sick

Sometimes we think God is sick. I read differing news feeds and social media posts and I sense fear and angst, despair and a great lack of hope. It is as if we have come to believe in the fallibility of God.

I suppose I hear voices that cry out ... God, are you sick?
Are you on your death bed?
Can you still work in this day and time? Do you care about us?

Are you still in the miracle business? Are you with us, still?

My word for all of us today ...
Don’t despair.
Have faith.
He (God) neither slumbers nor sleeps.

He may not answer our prayers, our calls and our cries of desperation the very minute we cry out, but take heart, He hears and sees every need, every situation and every crisis that rears its ugly head all over this planet.

God, in His time, will act in ways that are in keeping with his nature and His timing. Remember, He is master of the MASTER CLOCK.

The greatest Bible verse I could ever offer is this:

“Be not afraid nor dismayed, for I the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Remember, this is a promise, not for deliverance from, but sustainability through all circumstances.

Let your faith find its footing in this promise.

Internet Church Blog Site

P Michael Biggs Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

A Piece of Peace for Today

A Piece of Peace for Today

I’m struck this morning with Psalm 46.  It is a good and timely passage.  I especially love the idea of “Be still and know that I am God.”

In my reading today this idea cropped up.  What if we interpret this passage in this light?  

“Be Still” becomes “Stop striving.  Stop fighting.  Christians-snap out of it.  Understand who God is.”

Whoa!  That’s pretty fresh.  What this says to me is this …

~Slow down and come to grips with a reframed sense of God.  Has he changed?  Has he abandoned us and our world?  Has He abandoned us and His plan for the redemption of mankind?  Is the world going to end tomorrow, or the day after the next election?

If you read my Facebook feed, you would think we are doomed to Hell and there is absolutely no hope for anyone anywhere in the world.  We have strife, wars, invasions of other lands, Congress up in arms, apparent corruption at many levels of our own US government as well as in other governments in other lands.  And the list goes on.

Is God’s attention diverted?

Is He asleep at the wheel? 

No – emphatically NO!

The first verse of Psalm 46 stabilizes us, I think.

“God is our refuge and strength, our very present help in trouble. 

Therefore, we will not fear, even if the earth is removed, and the mountains fall into the seas.” 

Go and read the whole chapter for yourself.  You just might receive your great word of hope and you’ll actually look forward to awakening to a world full of bright hope for tomorrow.

Internet Church Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

The Ups and Downs of the Present Moment

The Ups and Downs 

of the Present Moment

How are you doing in this up and down, topsy-turvy world?  If you believe the news sources on any given day, we are headed for a recession, melting polar ice caps, the collapse of civilization, the President being ousted, Congress in revolt, and a civil war could break out at any moment.

So, how are you doing in all this?

There is one thing I know in the middle of all this madness and uncertainty. 

GOD IS IN CONTROL!

I believe that.

I trust that.

I trust that God is not asleep at the wheel, that He is aware of everything that is spinning around us, and aware of all the players on stage in this drama of the life we live.  I trust that He is watching, and perhaps, intervening in small and subtle ways that we can’t see with our human eyes, and yet His hand is working nevertheless.

In all the years of my life, I’ve never escaped some hard places.  God never promised I would.  What He did promise was that He would be with me “wherever I go”. 

So, come what may, I’m holding onto the only solid truth I can find – God knows where we are every moment of every day.  He is with us at the peak of the stock market and in the valley of the crash.  He is with us in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and through it all, He is going to see us through.

Ultimately, man is not in control.  God is in control. 

I’m staking my life on that!

Internet Church Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration