and a simple trust ...

"Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen.  You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”  Mt. 21:21-22

Today we looked at the simple trust needed to hear from God.  And how do we know we trust??  obedience.  Because ... "Trusting the Lord implies we expect Him to come through for us."  Hmmmmmm ... I think this was another post another day ... because aren't there things we don't pray for because we're afraid God won't "come through" and we're afraid of how we or He will look if He doesn't???  Rather than coming to trust God more, depend on God more and ask God for more as we mature in our faith, there's a tendency to think we've got things under control, we don't need to really bother God with them and we even sometimes stop asking God for/about the "little" things because we really don't know if He'll come through.  Think about the things kids will pray for ... friends, neighbors, strangers, pets and stuffed animals ... the food, the table, the forks, knives and spoons ... their ballgames, their tests, the people who are mean to them ... back to my little friend, Payton.  On their way to interview retreat Saturday, they passed a fatality wreck on the interstate and at dinner that night, Payton was commenting on how we needed to pray for the man who was killed in the wreck.  How many of us "grown ups" would even remember the wreck 6 hours later?

To hear from God, we need to go back to that childlike, simple faith that brings needs, big and small to His feet.  We need a faith that trusts our God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing our God cannot do ... Hearing from God means we will trust Him and be obedient to what He tells us.  It means we become MORE dependent on Him, not less.