TRUST THE TRUSTWORTHY
(1 Peter 5:7)
This article is an excerpt from my Father's book, titled "Hi, see you in ,,, (HEAVEN!)" Since my Father is gone to Heaven, I would like to keep his work alive by sharing it with you and to the rest of the people who would have the chance to read this and hopefully, it would at least give them a lesson or two and thus learn from it.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. God bless you.
Time seems to change so fast and the attitude of man also follows the path along the trend. Very often, I hear from the people around some remarks like this: "People now-a-days can no longer be trusted ... or some similar expressions of distrusts.
Yet, paradoxically, while we shrink our attitudes to the way of trusting people, including even our close friends and relatives, we direct our trusts to certain ideas or activities or the so-called "culture standards."
A friend of mine told me a story about his sister, a widow of 5 children who never trusted anybody in her life, not even her husband when he was still alive. Upon the death of her husband, she received a cash amount of P50,000.00 being a beneficiary of her husband's life insurance policy.
For the first few weeks, she was so uneasy for she could not decide on how to keep the money. "She would not listen to anyone of us in the family and she became quite aloft with her closed friends for fear, perhaps of lending then any amount should anyone would attempt to borrow. Finally, she was convinced by someone who invited her to be involved in a marketing venture that projected a multi-million earnings even in less than a year. She was so enthusiastic that she poured out all of her resources, money, time ad efforts to the said venture only to end at total bankruptcy in a matter of few months."I was swindled by that shameless man," was her often sigh of relief. It was not too long thereafter, only about less than two years, my said sister died of the cancer of the brain. She had never recovered from any of her worries until she succumbed to them."
Jesus is right when he said, "Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rusts destroy and robbers break in and steal. Instead, store up riches to yourselves in Heaven, where moths and rusts cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are." (Matthew 6:19-21) Are worries also a kind of riches?"
How about you my friend? Do you also entertain some worries in your mind? How often? And what are the common causes of your worries?
By the way, can you recall an instance in your life when you were able to solve your problems or worries by simply keeping worried about them?
Jesus invites us, the "worriers" of this time, to come to him so they can find :rest." (Read/Reflect: Matthew 11:28.)
Another close friend of mine once shared his unforgettable experience about when his wife was suddenly brought to a hospital in Manila for an emergency major operation, Two days before, they were supposed to checkout after a 10-day confinement, he learned that their bill would be close to P250,000.00. They had no money and the most he could ably raise from his probable resources, if at all may hardly reach P20,000.00.
So he went to the Hospital Chapel and prayed, saying among other things: "Father it was not our will that my wife be hospitalized, but she is.You know we have no way of paying the bills, but since you allowed it to happen, I can only trust the payment in your care. I know and I understand that whatever I cannot, You also can, if You will. So, Father, I do not know how You will do it, But, in the Name of Jesus, I trust everything into Your care. So, I thank you Father, our bill is paid."
In the following hours in the same day, our friends and relatives unexpectedly flooded to visit my wife in the hospital, that was just before a few hours we checked-out we were able to accumulate more than P200,000.00 leaving only an unpaid balance of P40,000.00. We signed a promissory note payable in two weeks.
Very amazingly, indeed, one of our daughters earned more than P40,000.00 in an outright business transaction only a couple of days after we left the hospital. The said promissory note was paid or redeemed in less than a week's time."
Jesus always assure us: "For this reason, I tell you when you pray and ask for something, believed that you have received it and you will be given whatever you ask for." (Mark 11:24).
How true and very trustworthy is St. Peter's assertation. "Humble yourselves, then under God's mighty hand, so that He will lift you up in His good time. Leave all your worries with Him because he cares for you:"
( 1 Peter 5:6-7).
Somebody gave me a cellphone. I really needed one so much because of so many who needed to get in touch with me on time because of their pressing problems but I could not usually be reached through the landlines in the Office or at my residence. By the Grace of God, a friend of mine bought one for me. Now I could easily be reached anytime as long as there is available cell site in the area where I am.
One early morning. while in a tricycle, on my back home, I unconsciously laid down the cellphone on the tricycle seat after responding to a call, Reaching our house, I alighted, paid the driver and hurriedly entered our house gate, without picking up the cellphone from where I laid it on. It was only after 5 minutes thereafter when the tricycle was already out of my sight that I recalled what I had forgotten. I attempted to run after the tricycle but to no avail for I did not have the slightest idea where it could be by then.
Everybody then around me had something to say about the incident: "Oh, that's already gone." The driver is happy." "Maybe he didn't notice." "Somebody else got it." All kinds of comments they gave me. "Who can you trust nowadays about things like that?" ended words of another one.
Silently, I said to myself, "There still is!" Then I prayed. "Lord, You have given me the cellphone by using a friend to hand it to me, then I lost it through my own negligence. But I trust everything into Your care. If I really need a cellphone, You will give me another one or You will have the same return to me. Thank You, my Lord."
In less than an hour, the tricycle driver was knocking at our door handing me the cellphone.
TRUST THE TRUSTWORTHY!... JESUS! I trust Jesus not only because He can do it. After all, I know that in Him nothing is impossible. (Matthew 19:26) I trust Him because I, sincerely believe He will do it, if it is for my sake. (Read/reflect: Mark 1:40-41 and also Matthew 15:21-28).
The Roman officer was so confident not only by believing that Jesus can but deeply submitted by his trust that the Lord will heal his servant, so he said: "I do not deserve to have You come into my house. Just give me the order and my servant will get well." (Focus on verse 8 of Matthew 8:5-13). Is humility an essential trait of a person giving the trust?
In the first letter of St. Peter to the scattered Christians throughout the Northern Asia Minor who were then subjected to persistent persecutions and sufferings because of their Christian faith, reminds and encourages us all, to wit: "In the same way, you, younger men must submit yourselves to the older men. AND ALL OF YOU must put on the apron of humility, to serve one another, for the scripture says, "God resist the proud but shows favor to the humble. Humble yourselves, then, under God's mighty hand, so that He will lift you up in His own good time.
(Chapter 5 Verses 5-6).
How about you? Do you have trust in Jesus? Does Jesus have trust in you?
Leave all your worries with him because He cares for you.. ( 1 Peter:5:7).
Do you have someone else whom you trust?
