Do You Trust Me?
Well, hello again from Nicaragua! This week’s post is a little different as I actually wrote it on Saturday due to a trip I will be taking to Albellanas, a remote village in the rural part of Nicaragua, this week. More on that later.
In last week’s post about waiting, I briefly mentioned another lesson I believe God is teaching me, trusting. As challenging as it is sometimes to learn to wait, learning to trust can be that much more trying. If you think about it, in some ways these two lessons work hand-in-hand. God says now is a season of waiting in your life which in turn means you have to trust Him enough to actually wait. You are obedient and wait on God, who is always faithful to His promises, which increases your ability to trust Him more in the future. Going back to our friend Moses and his interactions with Pharaoh in Exodus, I think you can certainly see this lesson at work. Once Moses gets past his own inadequacies and obeys God’s call to go to Pharaoh, he and Aaron have to continually trust God enough go back to Pharaoh time and time again, perform signs, ask him to let the Israelites leave only for Pharaoh to have his heart hardened and say no. Only after God’s will was done did they see the fruit of their trusting. As we look over Moses’ life I believe we can see how working out his “trust muscle” here paid dividends as he continued to follow God’s call on his life. I know this has been true for me as well. Thinking back over my life, I can remember many instances where God asked me to trust him enough to wait through some challenging times in belief that he will be faithful to his promises. Those times, in turn, have been preparation for trusting God as I am waiting for him to move here in Nicaragua. While it has at times been challenging, times in my life such as leading a struggling Young Life club wondering if God was working, have increased my ability to trust God’s faithfulness.
In reading through the passage in Exodus, I can relate to Moses’ need to trust God in another way. As God is asking Moses to obey his call to go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt, I think it is easy to just say Moses was a doubter and need to “step it up” a little. While in some ways this is certainly true, I think it is equally, if not more, true that what Moses really needed to do was to rely on God’s ability to come through. Said in another way, Moses needed to trust that God is big enough to overcome anything even when he was not. You see, all of Moses’ concerns were legitimate if it was based on Moses’ abilities, but when his reliance on the Lord overcame his fears, God was able to use Moses to do more than ever could have been possible for him alone. While this is something God has certainly taught me in the past, it seems infinitely more important and real being in Nicaragua. Over the past two weeks, I have come to realize how small James Belt really is and how big the things I believe He has called me to be a part of addressing truly are. In many ways, this has been incredibly scary and has led me to doubt myself my own abilities maybe more than I ever have in the past. These fears and doubts have created a ton of tension in my life (picture stretching a rubber band) when it comes to how much I truly trust and rely on God and how much God created me to trust and rely on him. In dealing with this tension, I am beginning to come to a greater place in trusting God. I am starting to truly understand that this is not God being a part of James Belt’s work, but James Belt being used by God to do His will. God is working here in Nicaragua and has been for a long time and I am just called to be faithful to my part of His story. I believe, if we can truly begin to live this way (and I am not there yet), God can use us to change the world. As we enter Holy Week and the remembrance and celebration of all that Jesus did for us on the Cross, I hope we can all remember that, even though we are not, He is big enough to overcome.
Back to my trip to Albellanas. This week, I am going to have a neat opportunity to travel with a team from Cedar Run Church in Northern Virginia, a partner of VNDF’s, and Roger Orozco among others to the village in which Roger was born and grew up. Roger is now living in the United States, but has a heart to reach out the people of Albellanas and tell them about the love of Christ as well as demonstrate that love by doing a couple of projects including the construction of outhouses. We will be showing the Jesus movie using generators and equipment transported in as well as talking to the people of Albellanas. There is a beautiful and humble church in Albellanas, but many of the people, especially the men, do not know understand the real Gospel and power and change that bring to our lives now and for eternity. This is a very remote village so we will be driving four wheel drive vehicles to get there, which still could be a challenge. This is a really neat opportunity to see God work and to trust him more so we are all waiting in anticipation. I will be sure to include an update about the trip in next week’s post.
I hope you have a great week and take time to reflect on the difference trusting God more can make in your life. May this Easter you fall deeper in love with Christ, who gave His life for you, and deeper in love with His plan for your life.
In2theRiver 
James thank you so much for sharing all these difficult but wonderful realizations. It is so awesome to get to hear about the difference you’re making down there. Thank you for writing and reminding us that we are here for him.
Hi Michelle!
Thank you for the comment and encouraging words! I hope you have a great Easter!
James