WEDNESDAY WEEKLY WORD...take a chance on me

Recently, I heard someone say that they weren't sure about giving their heart away to someone, for fear of getting hurt. When one gives their heart away, in essence what they are doing is trusting their heart to someone else. Trust sometimes means that you will take a "risk" on another person.

This kind of trust is summed up in an old song, sung by the group ABBA, "take a chance on me". Sometimes, that is exactly what we need to do if we are to trust someone. Many times, honesty and openness can only come as someones "word" and in time it is proven by their actions. Often times what we need to do is just simply "take a chance" and trust people.

Many of us step away from taking chances though. We need security and everything in order and we demand things to make sense before we can trust in it.

MATTHEW 1:18,19 "This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (19) Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly."

Can you imagine what it took for Joseph to trust in what Mary was saying. In last weeks YOUR OPINION MATTERS POLL, I polled the readers the following question, "what would you have done had you been Joseph and there was no angel to tell you the truth?" The top 3 answers were:

1. 50% of those polled said that if they were in Joseph's situation, they would have talked to Mary about it.
2. 30% voted and said if they were in Joseph's situation, they would have cried alot.
3. 10% of those voting said that they would have forgiven Mary right away.

Joseph wanted to trust Mary, but how could he know her story was true? Read on...

"But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.' "(Matthew 1:20,21)

Joseph had somewhat of an easier time trusting Mary because an angel came to him in a dream and verified Mary's story. How many of us wish that we could have a similiar verification of every story that is told to us by our children, our spouse or our friends? Most of the time, things do not happen this way. We usually do not have angels coming and telling us who and what we can trust, so we have to be the ones to decide who we take a chance on.

But we don't have to make such a difficult decision on our own. Even when people let us down and cause us to mistrust them, God can be our guide and our example of how to trust. Putting our trust in Him will allow us to trust others in a way that we never thought possible.

HAS SOMEONE FAILED YOU? LEARN TO TRUST AGAIN!