I DIDN’T BELIEVE IT – BUT IT WAS TRUE

 

Thursday, January 26, 2023

 

I DIDN’T BELIEVE IT – BUT IT WAS TRUE

 

Matt 6:25-26

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

 

          I simply didn’t believe it. I was raised with a strong work ethic by parents who survived WWII and the depression. We saved bacon grease! Oh, I was as lazy as I dared to be, like most folks, but self-sufficiency was part of me.

 

          I finally landed a job at the Coca-Cola Company in Cincinnati with a prestigious title to a dirty job. I was the “assistant purchasing agent” but what I truly did was repair flat tires on route drivers’ wheel carts. Once I assembled a new cart from parts! I had a showroom new car, a ’67 Mustang, Vintage Burgundy with a sprint package. I lived at home, rent free. I think they call it “made in the shade.”

 

          So, when the Holy Spirit began to collect on what I suspected was a call to life-long ministry, I didn’t believe He could provide as well as Coca-Cola. I resisted and set out to disqualify myself – but that is another longer story. God won!

 

          My very first sermon was from Matthew 6, not because I believed it, but because I needed to hear it. I needed it to enter through the eye gate, rattle around the archives of my head, and out the mouth gate, finally entering the ear gate, and hopefully lodging in my heart. Yeah, that’s what a sermon sometimes does. I simply didn’t believe it – but it was true, and still is.

 

          I could tell you the whole story, but it would take 76 years to tell, and I don’t think either of us has the time. I guess I could sum it up with an old Fanny Crosby song.

 

All the way my Savior leads me,

Cheers each winding path I tread,

Gives me grace for every trial,

Feeds me with the living Bread.

Though my weary steps may falter

And my soul athirst may be,

Gushing from the Rock before me,

Lo! A spring of joy I see;

Gushing from the Rock before me,

Lo! A spring of joy I see.

Francis (Fanny) Crosby

 

Lord, though I have failed you many times, you have never failed me. Lord, I believe it. Help thou my unbelief. AMEN