Josh McDowell's Youth DevotionsSample

TRUST AND OBEY. Have you ever entered your family's living room and plopped down on the couch? Sure you have, right? But how did you know the couch would hold you? Have you ever slapped a stamp on a letter or card and mailed it to someone who lived hundreds of miles away? Of course, you have. But what made you think the letter would actually reach its destination? Have you ever picked up a telephone, dialed a friend's number, and expected someone at your friend's house to answer the phone? Well, why did you expect to be connected to the phone at your friend's house? "Don't be dumb," you might say. "I knew the couch would hold me because I've sat on it lots of times before. And I figured the letter would go where I mailed it because I've mailed things before. And I've dialed the same phone number lots of times. Why wouldn't it ring at my friend's house, unless they changed their phone number?" You're absolutely right. You do the same kind of thing every day. You expect the couch to support you because you've sat on it many times, and it's never collapsed, right? The same is true of the letter and the phone call; you expect a certain thing to happen because it's always happened that way before, right? You might say you've learned to trust those things, right? Well, if you can trust a couch because it's never let you down, you should really be able to trust God. A couch might get old; it might fall apart. But God never gets old. He never breaks down. He never fails. He is always trustworthy. And if you can trust God, you can also trust his commands. You can believe that when God says to do something (or not to do something), his command is good because he is good. When God says, "Honor your mother and your father," you can believe that it won't hurt you to honor your mother and your father. When he says, "Do not lie," you can believe that telling the truth is going to help you, not hurt you. You don't ever have to wonder if this command or that command is worth obeying; you don't ever have to guess which of God's commands is good for you. If you can trust God (and you can), you can also trust his commands. REFLECT: Unscramble the following words from today's Bible reading and rewrite them on the blanks to list four reasons why we can trust God. sonless from the past urigsloo the deeds of the Lord erowp his carmiles the mighty he did Answers: lessons; glorious; power; miracles. PRAY: "Lord, I know I can trust your commands because I know I can trust you. Help me to remember your glorious miracles and obey your commands every day."