“Trusting Jesus More”

Jesus, Immanuel—God with us, is my Good Shepherd.

An Excerpt from Journey into Trust

He never despises me—His creative, oh so persistent sheep. My failures are fertile ground to Him. My missteps—my hurrying in—actually make Him smile. Not the super proud, beaming smile maybe, but the grin with that gleaming tenderness in His eyes.

I must remind Him of Peter at times! Stepping out of the boat—bidding Jesus to call him out onto the stormy waves to walk on water with Him—only to be sputtering and near drowning a minute or two later. But for those few minutes Peter did what no one else, but Jesus, has done! The water had hardened beneath his feet. None of the other disciples could boast that! Of course, none of them got as wet either, but Peter, even in his failure, had the exhilaration of going out to Jesus on top of the surface of Lake Galilee. His downfall wasn’t in asking for Jesus to beckon him to come and it certainly wasn’t in taking the steps of faith when no one else would. No, his only failure was in taking His eyes off Jesus when the winds and waves whipped at his cold ankles, his garment, soaked through with spray stuck to his body, and the waves roared at him.

It was then that their intimidation succeeded in sinking his legs deeper and deeper into fear until his head was close to sliding beneath the waterline! Jesus would not abide him to drown. No, He lifted Peter up again, saying, “O ye of little faith.”

“Oh me, of little faith.” Jesus came to remake me. He came to give me a born-again existence. He came to teach me how to put self down and lift Him up! He came to show me how to bow before His throne and keep my butt out of it! He came to win my affections and full confidence. He comes today, again, to show me how feeble the idol of self is, and how futile the idol of me always will be, so I can once again cast it aside and choose to wait on Him to move the mountain, make the way, chart the course, and put everything in place the way He desires. All the while it is not Him who is slow—it is I who am slow. He waits for me to come around and for my heart to be ready, for faith to fill me to the brim, displacing the fear, the shame, and the concern over what others think or do.

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