Guest Blogger: Dalton Stoltz
I remember meeting Lindsay for the first time. I was a freshman at Liberty University and she was a senior in high school. I worked at the Visitor’s Center and I gave tours to families who were considering Liberty University. Well it just so happened that Pastor Grant and “Miss” Tammy were on my tour. At the end of that tour, “Miss” Tammy called Lindsay Beth and said, “I met this guy and I think he’s the type of guy you could marry one day.”Lindsay’s interest peaked, “Tell me about him.” “Well, he’s Canadian, he plays hockey….” Lindsay promptly said, “It sounds like we have nothing in common,” and she hung up.
But a few days later Pastor Grant showed back up to the Visitor Center. He asked me if I could come outside to his car and meet his kids, Lindsay Beth and Taylor. I obliged. I went out to the car and Lindsay rolled down the window, she said, “hello,” and she rolled it right back up again.
But, Moments Matter because 6 months later, Lindsay would be a student at Liberty University. She would walk up to me in a crowd of people and she asked if I remembered her (I must have had a face she couldn’t forget). I did remember her, and those moments changed our lives forever.
In Luke 8:40-56, we find people whose lives were changed in a moment because of Jesus. Moments Matter. For Jairus and the woman who had been ill for 12 years, their lives were changed forever when they had an encounter with Jesus.
It’s a powerful series of events. I want to make this personal for us today. In the moments that matter most in this life, you can trust HIS VOICE, HIS TIMING, AND HIS WAY.
First, in the moments that matter most in our lives we can trust His voice. We all have a choice to make.
Will we trust His voice?
Jairus had to choose to listen to Jesus instead of the messenger who brought him the news that his daughter had died. For Jairus he had to make a choice to not listen to his own relatives and neighbors when they laughed at Jesus about his own daughter being just asleep. Jairus had to listen to the voice that said:Don’t be afraid, just have faith. Who are you listening to? Do you trust His voice? In the moments that matter most in this life, you can trust His voice.
Secondly, in the moments that matter most in your life you can trust His timing. I’m sure the woman didn’t like being ill for 12 years. I’m sure Jairus didn’t enjoy waiting for Jesus while He talked to the woman. We struggle with timing as a culture. We don’t like to wait as a culture and we don’t really have margin in our calendars. The result is our relationships suffer: our marriages, our families, our relationship with God. They all suffer. Today, maybe the best thing you could do for yourself in taking a step towards trusting God’s timing more is to look at your calendar and to take something off. Also make sure you have on it Bible reading and prayer time. That will be a step towards helping you to trust Him, because in the moments that matter most in your life, you can trust His timing.
Finally, in the moments that matter most in your life, you can trust His ways. The woman who was private had to let everyone know publicly that she had been healed. Jairus, who was a public figure, had to keep the news private.
His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.
Moments Matter. In the moments that matter most you can trust His voice, His timing, His ways. Two reasons why:
First, God is immutable. That’s a fancy way to say, GOD NEVER CHANGES. Our circumstances will be in constant flux. There will be good times and bad times, but God is constant… He never changes!
Second, I can tell you that you can trust Him most based on my own personal experiences. It’s not because everything has worked out well for me, but in moments where everything was crumbling, He has proved to be trustworthy.
Proverbs 10:25 says, “When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation.”
Trusting my life to the One True King has been the best investment of my life.