Trust
Posted by preachgospelblog.com | Filed under Illustrations of Bible Truths
1. Trusting Step by Step
A father asked his son to carry a letter from their camp to the village. He pointed out a trail over which the lad had never gone before. “All right, Dad, but I don’t see how that path will ever reach the town,” said the boy. “Do you see the trail as far as the big tree down there?” asked the father. “Oh, yes, I see that far.” “Well, when you get there by the tree, you’ll see the trail a little farther ahead, and so on until you get within sight of the houses of the village.” Even so should we trust God, being willing to follow His directions one step at a time.
2. The Greatest Compliment
One wet, foggy day a little girl was standing on a street corner in a large city waiting for an opportunity to cross the street. She walked up and down and looked into the faces of those who passed by. Some looked careless, some harsh, some in a hurry; she did not see anyone who made her feel confident. At length an elderly man, tall and erect, yet with a kindly expression, came walking down the street. Looking up into his face she seemed to see the one for whom she had been waiting. She went up to him and asked timidly, “Please,
sir, will you help me over?” The old man saw the little girl safely across the street, and when he afterward told the story he said, “That little child’s trust was the greatest compliment I ever had in my life.”
3. Trust in God
As D. L. Moody said, “Trust in yourself, and you are doomed to disappointment; trust in your friends, and they will die and leave you; trust in reputation, and some slanderous tongue may blast it; but trust in God, and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity.” Luther gave a similar testimony when he said, “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.”
4. Childlike Trust
A frantic mother called her pastor one day. She was experiencing a bad case of “nerves” as so many of us do. He thought he heard a child’s voice while she was speaking, so he asked, “Is your child as upset and worried as you are?” “No, of course not,” she replied. “But why not?” persisted the pastor. “I suppose she puts her trust in me and lets me do the worrying,” she answered. “Then make a transference. Try to think of yourself as a child of God and, just as your child puts her trust in you, put your trust in God.”
5. The Miserable Supposer
There was a poor woman who earned her living by hard labor but who was a joyous, triumphant Christian. “Ah, Nancy,” said a gloomy Christian lady to her one day, “it is well to be happy now, but I should think the thoughts of the future would sober you. Suppose, for instance, you should have a spell of sickness and be unable to work, or suppose your present employer should move away and no one would give you a job. Suppose. . . .” “Stop!” cried Nancy. “I never suppose. The Lord is my Shepherd, and I know I shall not want. You know, dear, it is all those supposes that are making you so miserable. You had better give them all up and just trust the Lord.”
6. Fanatical Security
In the second century, a Christian was brought before a pagan ruler and told to renounce his faith. “If you don’t do it, I will banish you,” threatened the king. The man smiled and answered, “You can’t banish me from Christ, for He says, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ ” To this the king angrily retorted, “Then I will confiscate your property and take all your possessions.” Again the man smiled and said, “My treasures are all laid up on high; you cannot get them.” The king became furious and shouted, “I will kill you!” “Why,” the man answered, “I have been dead forty years; I have been dead with Christ, dead to the world, and my life is hid with Christ in God, and you cannot touch it.” In desperation the king turned to his advisers and asked, “What can you do with a fanatic like that?”
7. The Pilot’s Smile
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of a storm, he describes a ship caught off a rocky coast, threatening death to all on board. When terror among the passengers was at its worst, one man more daring than the rest, making the perilous passage to the pilothouse, saw the pilot lashed to his post with his hands on the wheel, turning the ship little by little into the open sea. When the pilot beheld the ghastly white, terror-stricken face of the man, he smiled, and the man rushed to the deck below shouting, “I have seen the face of the pilot and he smiled. All is well.” The sight of that smiling face averted panic and converted despair into hope.
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