Seeds of the Kingdom 15 September 2022 Daily Devotional || By Ellel Ministries International
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Trust is Hard
by Grace Bull
(Christ Jesus) who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. Philippians 2:6-7, NIV
Seeds of the Kingdom 15 September 2022 MESSAGE
Have you ever struggled with the issue of giving Jesus total control over your life? I certainly have. It goes against all our natural inclinations and desires to hand over control to another person. Especially someone we can’t see!
Why would you want to lose control? Why would you become totally vulnerable to another person? Supposing they took advantage of you and used what you have given of yourself for their own benefit? Suppose you lived to deeply regret the fact that you entrusted yourself to someone else?
I’m sure these feelings are at least partly God-given and right. Jesus did not entrust Himself to certain people. Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men (John 2: 24). Trust has to be earned. Forgiveness may be given whether it’s earned or not – and usually it isn’t – but trust is something quite different. You have to deserve to be trusted. It can’t be demanded or required. A person must earn trust. Seeds of the Kingdom 15th September 2022
So what about trusting Jesus? Has He earned our trust or not? Today’s verse tells us all about Jesus. Even when He had something wonderful (equality with God) He didn’t mind losing it for the sake of helping us. He never grasped or tried to gain anything for Himself. Even things He was fully entitled to, like equality with God.
Far from insisting on His own rights or benefits, He actually let go of every good thing He had, quite freely and from His own choice. He became less and less. He became a servant, and then a condemned criminal suffering torture on a cross. He didn’t take advantage of His privileged position, but gave everything up, in order to rescue you and me.
He’s not suddenly going to start being selfish and demanding now, is He? Instead, won’t He love and bless you (and me) more and more, as we give him more and more of ourselves?
Seeds of the Kingdom 15 September 2022 PRAYER
Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You didn’t even take advantage of Your privileged position of being equal to God, but laid Your life down for me. Please help me to trust You completely. Please heal me of all the pain from people I trusted in the past who have hurt me. I choose to release and forgive them and move on. I give You my hurting, lonely, weak self and thank You for giving me so much of You, Your wonderful, kind, patient, generous and accepting love. Amen.
Seeds of the Kingdom 15 September 2022 Daily Devotional written by Grace Bull, she is a member of the Ellel Ministries team, working in course development and the support of Ellel centres worldwide, having previously been a full-time GP (family doctor) for 15 years. Her passion is relationship with God and doing anything that will help other people to find that close relationship too.