TRUST

 

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

All you who fear the Lord, trust the Lord!  He is your helper and your shield.  Psalm 115:11

The Psalmist speaks a truth that challenges every hidden corner of willfulness and timid self-doubt.  It is a foreign truth to today’s Western culture, namely that we should trust God rather than our own abilities.

Consider the language of today’s parents to children:

          ·       YOU can be whatever YOU want

          ·       It’s YOUR life – YOUR choice

By contrast, the Psalmist speaks conditionally – if you really fear (or, more accurately, worship) God, then put your trust in Him…he wants to be your help and shield.

Some would answer that challenge with a string of probing questions: 

          ·       What does that kind of ‘trust’ look like in real life?

          ·       Why is it necessary to trust God; isn’t He good all the time?

          ·       What do I get on the other side of taking that leap of faith?

Those questions do not seem out of place, or odd in today’s cultural climate.  Before we invest, we want proof that it will pay-off, or at least a little sound reasoning that it’s the best choice for me.  

Doesn’t all that have a self-center kind of ring to it, as if the worshipper is what’s important, not the Creator, Sustainer, and Source of all life?  And isn’t that the issue that forms the whole of purpose in life from the beginning?  Let’s put the answer to that series of questions in a single declarative sentence:

God is worthy.

If there is such a thing as “sovereignty,” being in complete control of all beings and things created, that Sovereign would therefore be the source of all power.  That One would be sovereign over all extant beings, and things, and therefore, the giver of life and will.  If there is a God like that, THAT GOD is worthy to be worshipped, worthy to be completely trusted!

For You Today

So, the whole matter of today’s devotional thought is not one of what trusting in God looks like, or what my life might look like on the other side of trusting God.  Or any other condition I might try to introduce in negotiating a better deal on earth or in Heaven.  Rather, it is me, making up my mind which god I will serve…

·       The little ME today’s culture whispers in my ear is sovereign

-  or  -

·       The one, true, living God who loved me enough to leave his divine glory in Heaven and embrace me from a cross?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©