Complimentary Story
May 2026What do you believe about what you have heard? Now, that is a loaded question in these present days. This article will not be about politics or social media, it will be about God’s Word and how it can direct our path to a life lived in God’s promises.
Among mankind, a difficult undertaking is to trust God or anyone more than ourselves. The third step in the 12-Steps of the anonymous self-help programs, “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to God,” is more a process than a one-time event. You do not even see such a concept in most of the Christian gospel tracts handed out. I wonder, why? I think it is because we don’t want to give up our will.
Addiction is often described as self will run rampant. I think everyone liked or for the younger generations, would go along with, the title and lyrics of Frank Sinatra’s song, “I did it my way.” For most people, I believe doing it “my way” is pretty normal, but is it beneficial? Psalm 46:10 reads: “Be still and know that I am God.” The Hebrew word, translated, “still,” means to “stop striving.” The recovery concept is in the slogan, “let go and let God.” The common question is, do you mean I don’t have to do anything? The answer is, if you want to know God, sit down, be silent, get out of the way and let Him be God.
Jeremiah recalls the hope he has in the Lord because of His great protective love, His continuous compassion and His great faithfulness. Because of these attributes of God, Jeremiah proclaims that he will wait for God. (To be still, silent and look for) Lamentations 3:19-24. We will do well to do the same.
I believe the Galatian church was starting to do things their own way after they started out simply, believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul writes to them, Galatians 3:2-5, and I think the following passage should be read a little sarcastically, “I would like to learn just one thing from you; did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing – if it really was for nothing? Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard?”
When we do things our way, we usually suffer. In the recovery world, “our way” is the definition of insanity. We suffer greatly and continue to do things our way expecting a different result. Every follower of God and His Son Jesus, need to learn to let go of control and let God be in control. He leads, we follow. So, what have you heard from God, that you should believe?
Right off, in the passage above, God will work miracles in our lives if we believe what we heard. That gets my attention, I hope yours too. I heard that God is with me where ever I go, Joshua1:9, and will go before me and never leave or forsake me. Deuteronomy 31:6. I also heard that He will meet all my needs, Philippians 4:19. And just this morning, “The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forever more.” Psalm 121:8.
Let me share how this works in life. My wife and I recently went on a camping/fishing hike into the heart of the National Forest in northern Wisconsin’s Bayfield County. On the multi-mile drive into the heart of the forest, we noticed trees and limbs that had recently been cut up or pushed off the fire lane. It didn’t take long on our first back pack hike into where we wanted to camp, to know the forest was a recent recipient of a very strong wind storm. Remarkably, the ancient deer trail we follow was only blocked several times by fallen trees.
The hand saw came out of the pack and was handy to get around these obstacles. A look to the right or left of the trail revealed those parts of the forest would be impassable because of the vast number of massive, majestic poplar, pine and cedar trees that now lay in a tangled mess, snapped off or ripped from the ground by the fierce winds, as if they had only been little, brittle twigs.
We reached our destination and dropped our packs, briefly noticing the water level of the pond was a little high. We went back out for a second trip to carry in, not quite as heavy as the first, but still, heavy packs. Arriving back at the camp, the first priority was to throw out a line in hopes of catching a big brown or brook trout. We went to our favorite spot and found we couldn’t get to the water’s edge. The water was now well into the tag alters that normally embrace the water’s edge. We went to another spot and found the water level to be near the top of my knee-high boots and no room to cast.
Great care must be observed along the water’s edge, as most of the pond is bottomless, beginning at the water’s edge. Back at the first spot, we determined if we spent some time with our camp hand saw, we could clear a standing and casting spot for one person. That accomplished, I went for our tackle box only to discover I had left it and the fish reel in the truck. The half mile, one way hike went faster with no packs. Soon there were two lines out with each hook tipped with a big night crawler, twisting and turning, tempting a trout to come out and play, of course, with the promise that they wouldn’t get hurt by the highly trained special forces, combat trained, night crawlers.
Now our attention went to our physical need of water. Immediately, I realized that all our known sources of spring water access were now under water. I could recall one that would not be, about a quarter mile away, but it would mean going through a fallen and twisted forest. My heart finally was sinking. This had indeed been a hard day, with many obstacles that brought the temptation to give up, turn back and go home. I was having one of those “Israel in the wilderness” moments, questioning, “wouldn’t it be easier to go back to the bondage of the brick pits than to face the unknown and trust that God will provide and take care of us?”
Only my question was more like, “wouldn’t it be easier to go home, stop at the grocery store and buy some fish?” With our water filter in my hand, thinking I could, but I didn’t want to, get water from the dirty flooded water behind me, as we needed water, I saw a flitting movement in the branches of the brush. From branch to branch the yellow-rumped warbler moved with obvious intention to attract mine. It quickly dropped to the ground and I saw a splash of water, then more, as it used its wings to splash up water and then it flew, not far away.
Twenty steps and I was at an unknown spring stream about two inches deep and a foot wide emerging from a hidden source among the twisted and uprooted cedar trees of a wind storm of many years passed. Coincidence? Not a chance. God directed a small bird to show us the water we needed. Within minutes, we were getting our first cup of water from the gallon dispenser hanging from a tree branch in our camp. We both thought that this had to be the best water we had ever had. An indication of the level of difficulty of our trip was upon returning home and getting on a scale, I found I had lost 5 pounds. Lots of water weight and definitely some calories.
We had left home at 3:30 am to get in and be fishing by 6:30 am. Well, we started fishing at 1:30 pm. As we set up camp, the little warbler stayed very close throughout the day and as we would check the poles, occasionally, we would have a fish on and in the creel it would go. By dusk, we had caught our limit of three brown trout each, nice ones too, cleaned them and put them on ice, in the cooler, we brought for that purpose.
We had freeze-dried macaroni, cheese and ham for dinner and as we were thinking of crawling into the tent for the night, I saw the little warbler again as it, this time, flew away. I closed my eyes and said, “listen, listen to the whisper of the wind in the still-standing, giant hemlock and cedar trees.” I said to Terry, “this is why we come here isn’t it? It is as though God is speaking to us....’I promised to go before you and prepare the way. To always be with you. To provide for your needs. I have had you in My hands all day and I am not letting go, not now, not ever.’”
Lynn Fredrick is the author of “Stand Firm,” a recovery program to help transform your life by using the divine power of God’s Word.
LynnFredrick.com
