Can You Trust God?
The other day I read a story in the newspaper that I hope will make you THINK!
A
woman in the state of Washington returned home from her work in a
restaurant at 3 A.M. Sunday morning to find her four children, ages
12,10, 8 and 7, dead in their beds of asphyxiation. One of them had
turned on the gas stove without lighting it.
But that isn't all
A fifth child 4 years old had burned to death last year. And her
husband has recently been confined in a tuberculosis sanitarium!
A year ago, she was a happy wife and mother, with her husband and five children!
Most
of you are having troubles of some kind. Many of you are complaining or
grumbling. But few, if any, of you have ever had to suffer such tragedy
as came to this woman in Washington. Yet this ought to give us all
something to think about! What ASSURANCE have you that some such
calamity will not strike you? Perhaps when you least expect! I'm not
trying to frighten you, but rather to point you to the only safeguard
against it—the only true security you can have!
Many, even
professing Christians, trust in money as their security for the future.
Many skimp, economize unduly, in order to lay up more and more, so they
need not worry for the future!
But this is a false security!
There is only one true Security for the future—knowing God, and faith and trust in God!
If
you could look into this world Tomorrow;—if you could see now what lies
in store for this world, and for you —then perhaps you'd do now as men
will do then, run frantically and terror-stricken "into the caves of
the rocks . . . away from the terror of the Eternal! Then man shall
fling to rats and bats his silver and golden idols . . . to hide from
the terror of the Eternal!" That's an actual prophecy, quoted from
Isaiah 2:19-21! ONLY ONE has power to protect you from the terrible
WRATH to come, and that is our loving, merciful heavenly Father,
Almighty GOD!
If we become sick, God heals us and restores our health.
But, more than that—if we serve God and put our TRUST in HIM, He often prevents these things even from happening.
We
have had such experiences, personally—several times. Once my wife was
lying in bed asleep with our eldest daughter. This was years ago, when
our daughter was just a baby. The baby was lying on the inside, her
head against the wall. Suddenly my wife was startled and awakened with
an audible voice, in a dream, commanding her, "Move Beverly!" Opening
her eyes and perceiving it was a dream, she turned over and went back
to sleep. Again a voice spoke in a dream, this time louder, with
insistence, "MOVE BEVERLY!" Startled, frightened, she opened her eyes,
reached over and lifted Beverly over on the other side of her. She was
lying there, half frightened, thinking about it, when, a few seconds
after she had moved Beverly, a large heavy picture and frame which had
been hanging on the wall just over Beverly's head came crashing down on
the exact spot where the baby's head had lain! Then she knew God had
sent an angel to speak to her in a dream and protect our baby's life!
Personally, I have learned what it is to FEAR GOD!
Frankly,
I'm afraid—and I mean really AFRAID!—to disobey God, or turn from Him,
or cease to serve Him in the mission to which He has called me! I'm
AFRAID to live contrary to His Word.
Better FEAR God—TREMBLE
before His Word—be AFRAID to disobey, and then live in the great and
peaceful security that comes from a living FAITH in HIM!
Yes,
better a thousand times to have this godly FEAR and TREMBLING to do
wrong, and then have God's gift of PEACE and SECURITY thru FAITH, than
to ignore God and trust in men or in money.
In the time of the
WRATH to come, soon to bring such havoc upon this world as to defy the
most lurid imagination, those who trust in God, who are WATCHING, and
PRAYING ALWAYS, shall be accounted worthy to ESCAPE all these things
that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of God!
Christ Jesus is our ROCK of safety— our REFUGE in time of trouble—our only trustworthy security for the future!
Instead
of laying up treasure on earth for YOURSELF, where moth and rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves can break thru and steal, LAY UP FOR
YOURSELVES TREASURES IN HEAVEN (Mat. 6:19-20) by putting as much of
your earthly money as you can INTO GOD'S WORK for the good of OTHERS
(Mat. 19:21), and you shall have REAL SECURITY indeed— and great shall
be your reward in the Kingdom!
by Herbert W. Armstrong Plain Truth 1950 Personal from the Editor
