Try to Try Less | Travis Young

Something that I’m a great advocate for is action! One of my favourite books in the Bible is the book of James, written by a guy called, you guessed it: James. He was the brother of Jesus and so everything that James has written should be taken very, very seriously; he grew up with Jesus and must have seen and heard things from Jesus that no one will ever know about- all good and great things!

James says that faith without works is dead and that it’s not enough to “just believe” and tells us that even demons believe! James 2:18-20 says, “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe- and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?” He goes on to use the example of Abraham demonstrating faith at the altar with his son Isaac and Rahab the prostitute taking action with her faith.

When I first started to explore who Jesus was, I was between 15 and 16 years old and the thing that stopped me? Not unbelief. Crazy, right? I actually believed quite a lot of what I had heard from the Bible and about Jesus- even the miracles of healing! So what did stop me? Well, I wasn’t convinced because I didn’t see enough of this Bible stuff put into action; as far as I was concerned, God either didn’t heal people anymore or Christians were too lazy and apathetic. If they weren’t excited about this, then why should I be?

I was 17 when I made a decision to follow Jesus- like I said, I didn’t not believe I just thought, ‘well what’s the point of worshipping a God who doesn’t do anything now?’ but one time at A2J, after hearing about physical healings, there was an opportunity to receive prayer for healing. I experienced faith into action. I was healed. I had an issue with my heart and it would occasionally hurt when I breathed, but God healed me there and then. On the spot.

So I’m very action focussed and rightly so! However, I often put pressure on myself, and no doubt I unintentionally put pressure on others also to do more. It’s great to be practical and this should never be compromised, but one thing I’ve learnt and am constantly being reminded is that it’s not about me trying. It’s not about me forcing something to happen. It’s not about me making sure that I raise a dead person back to life each week (although it would be epic!), but it’s all about intricacy with the Father. All miracles and growth and testimonies are by the grace of God and only from a place of rest in Him do these things truly happen.

There was a time when the disciples tried to cast out a demon but couldn’t do it. Jesus then casted it out and explained to them that it could only be cast out through “prayer and fasting”. Jesus wasn’t talking about fasting in the sense of not eating or drinking, or being Facebook free for a week, but was talking about intimacy with the Father. He was talking about fasting the dependence on ourselves and to start depending on God, who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ask or think (Ephesisans 3:20). Jesus says that with man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible!

So to summarize all this, the message is: It’s not about us trying to do more, but trying to do less- I’m not saying that we don’t take risks and make an effort- we 100% need to be intentional. But seeing God move in wonderful ways and being used by him is all about being close to him. So my encouragement is to rest in God through prayer and when you worship, do it truthfully; think about the great things God has done for you in your life over the years, or even this week...or even today! When we consider how good he really is and we thank him,

things change and it’s freakin wild. The place of intimacy leads to the place of the extraordinary!

God bless you crazy cats, and I’ll see you soon.

Travis