What's Our Problem?

I am a blessed man. Ever since that warm May evening way back in 1971 I've experienced a deep, rich, exciting, challenging, miracle-filled walk with Jesus. I've witnessed God move in ways that sadly many people never do. I have literally feasted on the goodness of God for over 37 years now (and to think, I'm only 39!!! ... NOT!). And yet ... I HAVE A PROBLEM. And it just may be that you have a similar problem. What is it you ask? I have a TRUSTING problem. Even with all the miracles. Even with all the last minute (to me, not to God) rescues. Even with the amazing and abundant provision throughout these years ... I still have a problem trusting God in my crises. Amazing huh? Well, it's even more amazing than you think. Let me explain.

AN EARLY MIRACLE:

I got out of the U.S. Navy on April 2nd that year and moved back home to Flatwoods, KY. Sharon and I had been married almost three years and our son, Danny, was a year and a half old. I was fortunate to be able to come back to my job as a clerk on the C&O Railroad. Over the next five months we bought our first home, I was saved, and life was good. I mean really good. UNTIL ...

Until early September 1971 when the coal miners up in West Virginia decided to go on strike. No big deal I thought. Let'em strike. It went okay for a week or so, then it happened. I was LAID OFF from my job. You see, when coal miners don't mine the coal, railroad cars have no coal to move and when they have no coal to move, they don't move either. So suddenly, there was no work and since I was low on the seniority pole, I was laid off.

Fortunately for us, we had been very frugal and had managed to pay ahead on our bills. No problem, the strike will be settled soon and I'll be back to work before our money runs out ... NOT!!! If you know anything about miner's strikes, they can be long and longer. Eventually, our money ran out. I had been out of the Navy too long to draw unemployment from them and had not worked at the railroad long enough to draw unemployment from them. So we literally had no money and no money coming in. We were going to Sharon's parents one evening to eat and my parents the next. But we were broke in the brokest sense of the word.

To make matters worse, we were brand new Christians and had no idea of God's promises. We didn't know much about prayer and we had never seen a miracle. We were crying ourselves to sleep each night worrying about what WE were going to do.

I found a job with my best friend opening and closing his gas station for $5 a day. I would get up and open from 6-8 am and then go back to close from 9-12 pm. For you young people that's $1.00 an hour (and I was thrilled to get it). Sharon was "taking in laundry" from the neighbors to make a couple of extra dollars to buy food and formula for Danny. So we cried a lot and did all we knew to do, but we weren't going to make it. Our bills were about to become past due and we had no hope ... OR SO WE THOUGHT!

That all changed on a Wednesday night. We went to church and then stayed for choir practice. We had revival coming up soon and we were practicing special music for it. As a matter of fact, we had been practicing on Wednesday and even on Monday evenings. But that night we didn't practice. Instead, our Song Leader, Bill Simmons, sat us down and read us a scripture I don't think I'd ever read before. It was John 15:7 "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you." Then he told us his story.

Bill didn't have a car. He worked as a salesman in the Sears store in Huntington, WV and hitchhiked the 25+ miles each way to work everyday. As you can imagine, this meant he spent a lot of time on the road each day trying to get a ride (even though it was much easier back then than now). So the previous Sunday night Bill and his family (wife and three boys) knelt in prayer and claimed this verse. Bill asked God to give him a car so he could make it for choir practice on Mondays and Wednesdays to get ready for revival. He didn't ask because he was tired of hitchhiking or because he felt deprived. He asked so he could fulfill what he believed was his calling to lead our choir.
That next night we met for choir practice and Bill was there. I was sick (or maybe they'd kicked me out of the choir because I can't sing ... I don't really remember why) and was sitting in the pews watching them practice when a man came in and sat down behind me. I turned to welcome him and he asked if this was the church where the song leader hitchhiked to work every day. I told him it was and he sat back and watched the entire choir practice.

When practice was over, everyone left and the gentleman waited until Bill was alone. Then he asked Bill if he was the songleader who hitchhiked to work. Bill embarassingly admitted it was him. When he did the gentleman looked him in the eye and said, "I'm here because God told me to give you a car." Bill was ecstatic. He didn't know what kind of car it was and he didn't care. Any ol' clunker would be good he thought. As the man waited, he locked the church and they headed around the building and down the sidewalk. To Bill's uttter amazement, there at the end of the sidewalk was a 1969 Ford Ranchwagon stationwagon. Power windows, power doors, air conditioning ... the works. The man told Bill the car was his and asked if he had money for insurance. Bill said, "No." so the man took him to his insurance agent and purchased him a six month policy. He also filled the car up and only asked for one thing ... that we would pray for his wife who was still and unbeliever. WOW!!! Can you imagine the excitement in our choir that night as Bill shared that bonafide miracle with us. It was incredible. We were so excited we couldn't go home, so we went to Sharon's sister, Dorothy's house for a snack. When we got there, Dorothy looked at us and said, "God can do that for you too, you know!" Immediately, tears filled our eyes and we fell to our knees and began to pray. We told the Lord we were abiding (remaining) in Him as best we knew how and we wanted to honor Him in whatever way He had in mind, but we had some needs we needed His help to meet.

We went home that night and slept for the first time in weeks. It was the sleep of peace. The sleep of knowing that our God was in control and we really didn't have a need He couldn't meet.

The next morning at 7 am there was a knock on our door. A man named Rod Howell whom I worked with on the railroad was standing there. He apologized for waking us so early, but he had a problem. The night before the electricity had gone out at his house and he had a bunch of beef from his freezer that he needed to get rid of. "Would you take some?" he asked. Would we??? He had several bags of steaks, hamburger, roasts and other items. We barely had enough room in our freezer to fit everything. When Rod left, Sharon and I hugged and danced around (we're not all that Baptist I guess). We cried, we praised God, we laughed, we sang. Then Sharon remembered that the night before Bill had given her an envelope with music in it for her to practice for the revival. Since we were excited and singing already, she might as well make good use of the opportunity, so she went and got the envelope of music. Yeah, you probably already guessed it ... along with the music, the choir had taken a love offering for us and there was $120 in the envelope. I have tears in my eyes as I write this remembering that as the first time we realized God is bigger than any need, any problem, any obstacle we can have.

To make a long story shorter, all day long things like that happened. People brought us food or gave us money. As a matter of fact, that afternoon Sharon was outside watching Danny play when a neighbor down the street called for her to come down. Now you need to know this neighbor didn't like us. I had kicked a football through her awning and into her picture window (it broke the awning, but not the window ... thank God!). But when Sharon got down there the woman held out a $20 bill and told Sharon she didn't know why, but she felt she should give Sharon the money. Sharon stuck her hand out fingers up, palm facing the woman and started to refuse the money when a bee flew up and stung her in the palm of her hand. She says that was when she learned never to refuse what God wants to do for her. By the time I returned from my Navy Reserve drill that night we had a refrigerator full of food, the cabinets were full, the table was full, the chairs around the table was full and we had over $250 in cash. What an awesome God!!! Then kinda like icing for the cake, as I walked in the door, the phone rang. It was the C&O calling me back to work the next morning.

WOW!!! And that was just the first of what has been a long list of God's miraculous provision and protection in our lives. There are dozens more I could tell you about. If there is one thing I know and know for sure, it is that GOD IS FAITHFUL!!! So ...

WHAT'S MY PROBLEM?

Why do I still find it hard to trust Him? Why don't I simply trust Him with all my heart? I think there are a couple of reasons.

1. WE'RE NEAR-SIGHTED

I don't mean that in the classic optomotrist sense. I mean we can't see the forest for the trees. Instead of REMEMBERING His miraculous provision all those times when God came through and simply acknowledging He will not forsake us now, we FOCUS on the immediate problem. Let me illustrate.

Have you ever taken a rock or small pebble and held it up in front of your face? By moving the rock closer and closer to your eye, you can literally block out objects many times bigger than the rock. You can even block out the sun with the rock. Now does that mean the rock is bigger than the sun? Of course not. Scientists tell us the sun is so enormous you could fit 1,000,000 earth's inside it. So how does a small, little rock obscure something so huge? It's a matter of perspective. It cannot possibly obscure the sun, but when placed so close to our eye it can appear to do so.

That's like our problems. We get so close to them we allow them to obscure the awesomeness of the God we serve.

2. WE LISTEN TO THE WRONG VOICES

When Sharon and I were going through that first crisis in our lives we were ignorant to what the Bible said. We were new Christians and didn't know God's Word well. Therefore, we were easy targets for the negative, gloom and doom voice of the enemy. We thought it was up to us. We thought we had to do it. We thought we had to come up with a solution to our problems. Then we encountered the power of God's Word. In the midst of the negative words of the enemy we heard the powerful, positive, certain Word of our God. Proverbs 3:5-6 have become a couple of my favorite verses over the years. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths."

3. WE HAVE SHORT MEMORIES

When did God ever fail you? When did He ever forsake you? When was the last time He came through with the miracle you had to have or you'd have been sunk? REMEMBER!!!

One of the things God made sure the Children of Israel did was REMEMBER. God told them to remember, rehearse, retell the great stories of His deliverance and provision. Write them down, share them with your kids, tell them to your friends. Why? Because when we remember what God HAS done, we are reminded of what He WILL do. It's funny how quickly and easily we forget.

I'm reminded of Moses and the Children of Israel. If ever there was a group of people who should have trusted God ... THEY WERE THEM!!! (I know that's horrible grammar, but you get the point). Deliverance from Egypt, crossing the Red Sea, water in the wilderness, quail, manna, provision, protection, guidance ... they had it all. They never had a problem that God couldn't and didn't solve. Yet, everytime something happened. Everytime the enemy surfaced, they would act like God had never ever acted in their behalf.

So what do we do? It's simple really.

1. FOCUS ON GOD, NOT OUR PROBLEM.
2. LISTEN TO GOD'S WORD, NOT THE NEGATIVE VOICES WITHOUT AND WITHIN.
3. REMEMBER WHAT GOD HAS DONE, NOT WHAT YOU CANNOT DO.