The Man of Trust. What can I say? I fell totally inadequate to even comment about trust, much less be an authority on it. All I know is I have the best teacher available. I admit, I don't know how He does His magic, but it seems He is teaching me by allowing me to live it out. He is allowing me to be in specific situations where I have to exercise trust, even what little I have to give. In a sense, the journey is the destination. I need to be content with that. With a very uncertain future, as far as where I will be or how life will look, I am "forced" into facing the trust factor. I am "pushed" over into a commitment. Ha, this reminds me of a joke that says, "He who straddles the fence, gets hurt the worst when he falls." He wants me to be purely real and really pure. I have held a long standing goal to be real, more and more, in every situation. So, trust is hard to pull off, eh, folks? It certainly is easy to sit here and say that you trust God with all your heart, etc. But when you have to put your money where your mouth is, well, if you're like me, you feel a bit puny. There you are, the circumstance taunting you to your face, like Goliath stood before David, a menacing and intimidating foe. You organize all the details after gathering all of the information and knowledge you can muster, swallow the lump in your throat, and....try to trust... a little bit. Then you go through all the stages of the grieving process again and again, right? I don't remember the order, but I know what I do. I blow back and forth, with the wind, oscillating between anger, denial, bargaining, acceptance, and the like. Can I get an Amen?
Enough about me. Let's look at Jesus. Now, that sounds better, right? Jesus was The Man of Trust. He ultimately proved it on the cross. Somehow, as He became sin for me, He lost sight of the Father. Through His pain and agony, He put His trust in His Father, committing His Spirit into His hands. Now, that's trust. And this very well may be the world's weakest description of what was accomplished that day, but just note that Jesus was in a state of weakness and was required to trust through the uncertainty. We must go through this very same crucifixion. It just simply must be so. It required the blood, sweat, and tears of Jesus. It took all of Him. He had to gut it out. We follow the same pattern. So, I might as well get over it already and set my jaw to endure in this way. I have to practice trust. I have to walk it out, and prove it by my life and my decision on how I will think and say and act. I'm either going to be real and practice what I preach or not. After all, what I say my favorite verses in the whole bible is Proverbs 3: 5-6. Funny, I know. "Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." Been my favorite verses since I was a kid. You'd think I'd be a better practitioner by now.
In our study, we noted how Hezekiah was heralded as a very unique man of trust in God. I'd venture a guess that if he was unique, that meant not many people were trusting God. We have this same opportunity in our world today. Will we trust Him? Are we courageous enough to prepare to handle the strain of being unique?
Further, the man of trust doesn't know how things will turn out. It makes sense that we are all weak in trust. I'm amazed at how we are desperate to know details of situations. As if we can control these things? The man of trust doesn't understand. He let's that go, admitting his state of weakness. It's very humbling. But that's where the power of peace comes in...
For sure, these traits of The Man are directly connected to each other. Why? Because they are all a part of Him. In a sense, they are Him. We are yearning to connect to Him and allow His traits to become us. It's a miraculous transaction, really. And I find that if I only trust, I can be a man of peace as well, in spite of the rattling noise of the raucous giant in front of me. Trust Him, my friends. Just let go of your fears and trust Him. Remember, He is for you and is on your side. There is no "losing" with Him. Trust fall! Fall backward into His arms. He's there. Trust Him.
