I'm so glad you're here. Let's dive right in. The 3 questions that have been starring me down in recent months...

Will you trust me?

Will you love me?

Will you praise me?

-God

Do you remember being a kid and, on a whim, with your sister or friend, always (it seemed) while eating a big bowl of sugary cereal at the breakfast table, having starring contests?? "Starring contest in 3,2,1 - GO!" Without missing a beat your sibling or friend starred back at you and you both tried your darnedest not to blink and be deemed the loser. Ha! Good times. Well I thing the 3 questions above, the ones Elisabeth Elliot (my hero in the faith) posed to me in a recent podcast, are the the 3 musketeers of questions in a starring contest with our faith.

Have you ever been lied to, or been the one doing the lying? I tell my 7-year-old daughter that lying is one of the most dangerous things to do because it is a relationship destroyer. Without trust, there is no foundation for a healthy relationship. The truth hurts sometimes, but it is still better than a lie. The truth takes courage and builds confidence between 2 people. The truth is the foundation for any authentic, trust-based relationship.

That's why, when I was listening to an Elisabeth Elliot podcast a couple of months ago, the three questions she posed struck me.

Will you trust me?

Will you love me?

Will you praise me?

It is the Lord posing these questions to us. Are these not the very questions our lives have to testify to as we walk the path the Lord has laid out for us? They are bottom-line type questions. They, much like Elisabeth Elliot, are cut-to-the-chase type questions...just my style. I'm not good with "fluff" and I've never excelled at "reading between the lines." I like when people shoot-straight with me.

The foundation of the answer to these questions can be met with an authentic "yes" if we know the character of the One asking the questions. If God were a liar, I definitely cannot answer yes to any of those. But, if he is a truth-teller, which his Word testifies that he absolutely is, then my answer can be a genuine "yes". Yours can too -- no matter what is happening around you.

"And now, O Lord God, You are God, and your words are true." 2 Samuel 7:28

Life is hard. Amen, anyone? Life slaps us in the face. Life takes a hard left, when we are trying to turn right. Life happens, over and over again. It is easy to become weary. It is easy to become cynical. But...*If we know a God who is kind, loving, generous, benevolent, grace-filled, merciful, patient, long-suffering, compassionate, faithful, joy-filled, wise, glorious, and infinitely more wonderful attributes, we can answer yes (YES!) when he asks us...

"Catherine, will you trust me?"

"Catherine, will you love me?"

"Catherine, will you praise me?"

(Fill in your name)

Over the last 3 months, the Lord has asked me to answer those 3 questions

over and over again.

What is happening in your life, right now? What is the Lord asking you

Will you trust me?

Will you love me?

Will you praise me?

about? How will you answer Him?

I am currently working on writing a devotional about who our amazing God is. The more I engage with this writing project, the more I am keenly aware of how indefinable he is. I am taken back by his goodness and all-sufficiency. I repeatedly am struck by Romans 11:33:

"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!"

You and I can rest. We can "park" in who he is. Who he is heals us. Who he is brings us peace. Who he is meets us in our confusion and disappointment.

Elisabeth Elliot passed away in 2015. If you get a chance to read Becoming Elisabeth Elliot and Being Elisabeth Elliot by Ellen Vaughn, I highly recommend these biographies. This American missionary loved the Lord deeply. More than anyone, she has encouraged me to focus my attention on measuring success as it relates to my obedience to the Lord, not outcomes. This obedience stems, she stresses, from an overflow of our love for God. Elisabeth posed these 3 questions in her own life. This woman suffered with such grace and a deep steadiness in her God that I admire beyond words. The man she married first, Jim Elliot, was murdered by the people they were trying to reach for Christ. Her second love, Addison Leitch, died a slow, painful death from cancer after only 4 years of a blissful marriage. Then she spent the majority of her adult life, over 30 years, married to her third husband, Lars Gren - a man who was harsh and questionably abusive. These were not her only heartaches, many more could be listed that happened to her on the mission field as a linguist and single mother. The woman's life was a difficult one. Yet, she asked these questions to herself, when surely she had more questions than answers swirling around her.

You have questions too. Heaven knows, I do. Acknowledging our questions is good, the Psalmist certainly did. But the key is not allowing our questions to turn us cynical and hopeless. We, as Christ followers can emphatically and joyfully answer

"YES!"

to the above 3 questions because of who we know holds all the answers.

His heart toward us is kind, even when it doesn't feel like life is kind. And we don't have to have all the answers to our questions. We just need to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the One who does have the answers isn't a liar, but a trustworthy truth-teller. We can anchor in Him...in who He says He is!

I am praying as I compose this devotional on who God is, that it will help us win the starring contest between these 3 "bottom-line" faith question and our suffering.

The more we know Him, the more we will be able to breathe easy and confidently answer "yes" to His....

Will you trust me?

Will you love me?

Will you praise me?

He's doing something, friend. I pray this encourages you.