Trust

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. (Psalms 37:4-5 KJV)

It was difficult to find a graphic that spoke of trust. This one makes it a part of a puzzle. Provenance is the truth behind a valued work, usually of art or literature. That could fit into a puzzle about trust because we depend on what was written about God’s promises that Christians say we trust.

Those promises are part of the data contained in the Bible. It is a history of wrongness and sinful deeds as much as a history of God’s word to mankind. God neither glosses over nor condones sinfulness. The Bible contains the result of sin, telling us like it is:

For the wages of sin is death;

God is not only aware of our sinfulness, He provided a response:

but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23 KJV)

All of the Bible is necessary to understand God’s credibility. It takes the full story, the whole counsel that Paul preached:

For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. (Acts 20:27 KJV)

Once we’ve established the source of the Bible, it’s reason for existence, we can view the data in its entirety and validate its credibility – then we can trust the application in our own lives.

There seems to be a slight breakdown there. It’s the trust that we have problems applying in our own lives. We read the data, we study its source - understanding the provenance – we even find it to be credible, but that trust factor does not keep us from questioning the Lord’s will in our lives.

We want (name anything you want). We don’t have (that thing you named). We don’t trust that what we do have is God’s will. Surely He know how badly we want that and He’s supposed to give us the desires of our heart, so there must not be a God willing to give us what we want. It is a vicious circle.

When the Lord truly is the delight of lives, our desires will coincide with His plans, not ours. When we commit ourselves to the Lord, He will bring to pass what He has planned for us. I’m almost certain it would not be what we have in mind on our own.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (Matthew 7:11 KJV)

That’s where trust comes in. Do I trust the Lord to provide good things – even if they don’t seem to be what I want?

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10 KJV)

I have only a vague idea of what God has in store – seen through a glass, darkly – but I trust that in this life, just as in the heavenly, He has prepared for those who love Him. And, I do love Him.