March 19, 2021: Serving God with Your Whole Heart Takes Great Faith and Trust in God's Provisions.

During my visit at my mother house this week with my daughter, eighteen, and my son, fifteen, my mother shared some great stories about her older brother who loved the Lord and served Him unconditionally.

My mother told us stories of my Uncle Pete, who would be laying on the floor watching television and suddenly, he would get a prompting from God on his feet. This prompting my uncle fully recognized, as it was time to go and serve Him wherever God would send him.

My uncle would pack a bag of clothes and off he went into the night. He would start walking until someone would stop and give him a ride. He had no idea where God was leading him. My uncle Pete's "child-like faith" trusted in his Heavenly Father.

There was a time when his ride dropped him off in the middle of a desert road all alone. He would wait there in the dark night with the coyotes hauling and ask the Lord, "Lord, what am I doing out here?". He would take out his small blanket from his bag and cover himself in the dark cold night. He would then begin to pray to his Heavenly Father and after a short time, another car would come by and pick him up and drop him off where the Lord wanted him to be.

The Lord would provide my uncle Pete with the necessary food and money he needed to survive and meet his needs by the people he served. He would minister to people who needed him and speak at churches that God sent him to. God was always there for my uncle Pete. What a life to live in serving our Heavenly Father in this way. I am reminded in the Book of Mark when Jesus was speaking to his disciples before He was taken up into the air in His ascension into heaven.

Mark 16: 15-18 (NIV)

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.

PERSONNAL COMMENT:

How can we be like my uncle Pete and live a life of "child-like faith"? We may not be sent out like my uncle, but we can serve God in our own churches and our families. But to have a faith like this, we must first come to "absolute surrender" to our God, so that we can begin living with our "whole heart" and trust in God's full provisions He has for us.