Trust and ALSO, Obey

Today, this is one of the devotionals I read:

A Deliberate Trust
by Charles R. Swindoll

In you, O LORD,
I have taken refuge.
Psalm 31:1

Under heaven's lock and key, we are protected by the most efficient security system available---the power of God.

There is no way we will be lost in the process of suffering. No disorder, no disease, not even death itself can weaken or threaten God's ultimate protection over our lives. . . .

"God stands between you and all that menaces your hope or threatens your eternal welfare," James Moffatt wrote. "The protection here is entirely and directly the work of God."

Two words will help you cope when you run low on hope: accept and trust.

Accept the mystery of hardship, suffering, misfortune, or mistreatment. Don't try to understand it or explain it. Accept it.

Then, deliberately trust God to protect you by His power from this very moment to the dawning of eternity.

It really resonated with me because of its profound truth, in the fact that our eternity is never (at any time) threatened by our earthly suffering, because of the protection we have via an Almighty God. As horrible as our present pain might be--it has no power to destroy us, in this life or the life to come; what it has the potential to do is mold us and shape us into vessels of honor, IF we don't complain and fight against the process. It does matter how we go through "hardship, suffering, misfortune, or mistreatment". Ask me how I know.

I've experienced them all. Before I learned how to experience them walking in victory, I experienced them in utter defeat--being plunged into the deepest despair, or anger and bitterness, ready to fight not only the situation, but the people I thought were the cause of my being buffeted. Yesterday, in Sunday School, someone mentioned that term, "Sandpaper people" that I love, because it is such an accurate description--vivid and obvious, of those that "rub us the (supposed) wrong way".  Actually, they are rubbing us the way we need to be "rubbed"--against the grain; providing the friction and wear that is needed to grind away the vestiges of pride, malice, and evil that hinder and beset us in our walk with God. We need those folk, and the valuable work that they perform in our lives--if not for them we would be stunted, never growing, yet thinking that we have it all together as we pave our way to perdition. My own failure was seated in pride--and I wasn't alone. Most of us, don't realize how much we attempt to fix our own situations and don't rely on God, other than for our selfish desires. Whenever we worry we exhibit pride. Worry means that I need to find my own way out of trouble, because if I really relied on God, Who Is my Jehovah-Jireh, there would be no need for worry. To worry is to lean on self. That's what we do when we worry, isn't it? When we worry, our question isn't "God, how in the world are You going to get me out of this?" but, "How in the world am I going to get myself out of this?" So, worry is laden with pride and idolatry. I succumb, too, and have to remind myself that God is always in control, and has promised to "supply all of my needs, according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus". 

Of course, we often have problems (especially as Americans) distinguishing between "need" and "desire". Biblically-speaking, needs are three things: water, food and clothing (Matthew 6:31,32) and God promises to provide "all of these things" (Matthew 6:33) as we seek His Kingdom first. The reason so many in the world are void of these things is because too many of us refuse to seek His Kingdom first--seeking His Kingdom first, is more than reading your Bible and going to church. To seek God's Kingdom is to "to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every [enslaving] yoke?

Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house—when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you hide not yourself from [the needs of] your own flesh and blood?" (Isaiah 58:6,7) Our focus has been misapplied, and focused on having not only our needs met, but every desire fulfilled, and using the Word of God (incorrectly, and without context) to justify it. 

In the process of focusing on self and asking "amiss", we have set ourselves up for trouble. While we have multiplied in earthly things, spiritually-speaking, we have become a nation of impoverished people whose focus is on comfort and earthly kingdoms. We now have a heavy death knell hanging over us--we're surrounded and engulfed by it, continually. I would think that it would terrify us into sackcloth and ashes, but we still go about business as usual, while some of us declare that the death is a result of lack of faith and if we speak life we could save ourselves from this present destruction. However, this destruction partially comes from speaking and declaring (selfishly) over ourselves everything that we want, while ignoring our worldwide neighbors. The message of Jesus is to stop "passing by on the other side", to "be moved with compassion" and "to lay down our lives" for others. We have really missed the boat, because it's all about "me". Our security in God has been adulterated, because it is not shared or extended. Nothing about the Gospel is selfish. Forgiveness has two sides; it cannot be complete if only you forgive the offender, offender's need to ask for forgiveness, too (Luke 17:3,4). Salvation has two sides; Jesus died--and it is free, but we must choose and receive Him and it--it isn't automatic or assumed. Grace has two sides; as it is bestowed, it too, must be given. 

As we go through our personal trials and tribulations, God promises to protect us and keep the adversary from swallowing us up--as He did for Job, Joseph, Elijah and countless others, but it is our duty to stand in the gap for our neighbors because, we are the representatives of Jesus in the earth, today. We carry His Spirit embodied within us, and we must behave as He behaved--we need to lift up the hung down head, touch the unclean, and refuse to allow them to be swallowed up, too. We need to care as much about their eternal, and earthly well-being as we do our own. All that He promises--water, food and clothing will only come through human instrumentation; we must be those vessels of honor. While we go about His business, we have no worries--He has our backs. 

 "Therefore, since we do hold and engage in this ministry by the mercy of God [granting us favor, benefits, opportunities, and especially salvation], we do not get discouraged (spiritless and despondent with fear) or become faint with weariness and exhaustion... For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." (2 Corinthians 4:1,6-11)

Trust and ALSO, Obey.