trusting God

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
It will be a healing for your flesh
and a refreshment for your body.

Proverbs 3:5-8; NRSVue

A mentor and good friend, my senior in more ways than one often tells me something like, “Trust God,” although the way he expresses it seems better than just that. The words you hope go deep down into your soul, your very being, and change you, a likely gradual change with many fits and starts, steps forward and a step or two back. It seems to us as humans that life is up to us. We either make it work or not, do the right thing or fail to do it. But the wisdom of Proverbs has a different take on this.

First, the necessity of a wholehearted, unreserved trust in God. Well, what are we going to get perfect in this life (or I wonder myself, in any life, for that matter)? We should never look for some kind of perfection in trying to “trust and obey.” It should be a commitment. Something like, “God, I really don’t get this well. It doesn’t jive with my experience. But I’m committed to it, entirely so, as much as I know how, only through your grace and help.” Something like that.

The next word is just as important, because when push comes to shove, we just naturally go to our default. We’re not to lean or rely on our own insight. It seems like some serious unlearning is likely in play here for most of us. I will grant exceptions, like in the case of my wife, who has the most wonderful, childlike (not childish) faith in God. For whatever reasons, although I think I’ve made significant progress, I still struggle in my faith. I like to understand just how things work and lacking that, I find it hard to trust. It seems to me that I have to accept that there’s something of mystery, mysticism, just not being able to grasp exactly all that is at play here, God’s ways, so that I have to trust both the process and outcome that is in God’s hands, and that, in spite of the inevitable mistakes I’ll make along the way.

Next is the word that we’re to, in my words, look to God in all of our circumstances, with the promise that God will make straight our paths. The NET footnote (verse 6) is helpful here. I think the NIV and NLT are also helpful here.

in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:6; NIV

Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.

Proverbs 3:6; NLT

Acknowledging God means to depend on, trust in, and be obedient/submissive to. I like the idea in the NLT of seeking God’s will in all we do, but I admit, I’m a bit skeptical of the rendering suggesting that God will show us which path to take. Maybe that is the case in the sense that as we apply wisdom, we can make a good, reasonable decision at that moment in time, the process not free from trial and error, and never infallible. And as it says elsewhere in Proverbs (11:14; 15:22), not apart from the wise counsel of others. At the very least, God will honor our full commitment to trust and obey God, insofar as we understand that.

The final word here is to not be wise in our own eyes, but to fear God and turn away from evil, with the promise that as we do so, we will be refreshed in body and spirit. I do experience something of this, even if not as much as I should, due to my all too often weak faith. No matter what hangs over my head, or what lies ahead, I can find something of God’s rest.

As my brother, friend and mentor keeps reminding me, “Trust God.” Yes, it may seem trite, something many of us have heard in some form or another since our childhood days in Sunday School. But it can make a world of difference, the difference we definitely need.

an anxiety treatment towards prevention and cure

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7; NRSVue

If anyone gets to know me, or if you’ve been around this blog, it won’t be too long until you’ll find out that anxiety has been a major issue I’ve had to deal with in my life. Someone could say, “Well, you’re anxious due to issues, real concerns.” And yes, that’s right. I have in recent years coped with anxiety better, maybe much better than sometimes in the past. If one can find a healthy coping mechanism so to speak, that might give one a window or the space needed to learn to deal with anxiety in ways helpful to them, that seems to me all very well and good.

There are actually many places in Scripture to draw help from when thinking about, anticipating, or experiencing anxiety. The psalms are chalk full of expressions of anxiety mixed with expressions of faith, even if a faith expressed in cries of desperation. Also the stories in the Bible, and don’t ever leave the Old Testament behind. In light of God as revealed in Jesus, we’re not going to take a good number of the Old Testament stories as correlated one to one, totally prescriptive for us today. My “sling and stone” will always be metaphorical, never for an actual flesh and blood enemy.

If there’s one spot I land on or return to again and again when dealing with anxiety, it’s Paul’s words here in Philippians. It is good, even important to read everything in context. Clicking the link above will put one into the section of Scripture, these words on anxiety are found. And better yet, read the entire book of Philippians, a relatively short read. We need less “precious promise” books and more reading of Scripture. Often the promises are taken out of context and more or less misapplied. I am not against such books myself. All I’m saying is that nothing replaces reading and studying and meditating on Scripture as a whole.

Now to Paul’s instruction for us. It seems odd, really impossible to not be anxious about anything. That depends precisely on what is meant, but we do well to do exactly as told here. When we’re considering anything which we know might take us down the path of anxiety, we pray to God with thanksgiving, letting God know all of our concerns, asking God for good answers as best we understand that. Then comes the promise that we’ll be living in God’s peace. Remember, that peace does not depend on circumstances. If it did, none of us would ever have it.

One last thought. We can read and consider this passage from a position of privilege, never encountering the dangers and ills that daily beset billions on our planet. That doesn’t mean this passage doesn’t apply to us, but it does mean that we will do well to take steps even towards what might well make us anxious, step out of our comfort zones, enter somehow into the suffering and world of others. Any number of ways to do that, through giving what resources we have, our time, ourselves, in ways that are healthy for us, but also self-sacrificial in love, the love of God in Jesus.

All the while stepping towards and being immersed in God’s peace in Jesus.

living in a world short of perfection

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher; all is vanity.

Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs. The Teacher sought to find pleasing words, and he wrote words of truth plainly.

The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by one shepherd. Of anything beyond these, my child, beware. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments, for that is the whole duty of everyone. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:8-14; NRSVue

I love Ecclesiastes. I don’t pretend to know what the best interpretation of it is. There’s a standard, traditional one, but when you turn to the scholars and their commentaries on the book, there’s fascinating disagreement and differences. Perhaps that’s part of the charm of the book: one gets the gist of it but is left with a lot of questions. Faith I think thrives best with questions, not with answers, thinking we have the answer to everything, or indeed the final answer to anything. Yes, faith is grounded in God, in God’s promise in Christ, in God’s Word, so there’s absolutely no flagging from that. But a book like Ecclesiastes along with much else in the sacred text often raises more questions than giving answers.

What prompts me to write this is just the puzzlement of living in a condition in which there is not only serious though mostly relatively rare dangers like gun shootings and the like, but nagging concerns, like lead in the house, especially thinking about children with reference to that, lead even in some otherwise healthy foods because of the soil, asbestos in various materials and places, etc., etc. Things like that. And I tend to be a perfectionist, wanting to take care of any and every problem so that there’s no potential hurt to anyone. I’m glad that other folks can see it all better in context which in part is why community is so important, and in my thinking and practice the community in Jesus, the fellowship of the saints, the church. And I’m thankful for sites online like Wikipedia, etc., which can help us to sort through such things.

But back to Ecclesiastes. It may seem strange for me to cite that book when thinking about this. I really don’t have a proof text from there directly applicable to it, though “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” may come close. Ecclesiastes seems to me in part to be a book about how life in itself, by itself, even with all its enjoyment and fulfillment will still leave us short and in the end unsatisfied. As the book concludes, we’re to fear God and keep God’s commandments. And the beauty and wonder of that is God is love and we can trust God to help us make good, responsible decisions along the way, all the while realizing that final perfection is not present in this old, broken world, even as that’s true of ourselves while we strive for perfection especially together in love in our following of Christ. But the arrival of such is part of our hope and longing, in the new world to come. In the meantime, we carry on especially together with this awareness in the love and with the help of God.

“Return, O my soul, to your rest…”

I love the LORD because he has heard
my voice and my supplications.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the LORD,
“O LORD, I pray, save my life!”

Gracious is the LORD and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The LORD protects the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest,
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.
I walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
I kept my faith, even when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted”;
I said in my consternation,
“Everyone is a liar.”

What shall I return to the LORD
for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD;
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the LORD.
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!

Psalm 116; NRSVue

I didn’t want to quote the entire psalm since I realize that few if any readers will bother to read it and won’t take the time to read most any post I write, unless it is mercifully short. This was something like what I wanted to quote:

Gracious is the LORD and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The LORD protects the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest,
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

Psalm 116:5-7; NRSVue

Or maybe the opening paragraph with that. Or just:

Return, O my soul, to your rest,
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

Psalm 116:7; NRSVue

In links I like to include context, depending on the paragraphs and headings of the Bible translation I’m quoting. It is so important to read Scripture in context. First, we have to do that before we might consider broadening the context of any one thought. But technicalities and those thoughts aside, I now want to hopefully hone in on something which I think is vitally important to many of us, perhaps everyone to some degree, but is especially acute in the experience of some people like myself.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that clinicians of the present day would talks about writers of many psalms in terms of mental health. And actually, to talk about that is no different in a way than referring to one’s physical health. It’s essentially getting at one’s wellbeing or sense of wellbeing. I know a fellow who when I asked how he was, he always said, “I am well.” I don’t think I’ve ever given that reply. More like, “I’m okay” or something more or less than that. Or what’s expected.

But this psalm is so helpful to us just like all of Scripture, if we just take the time to meditate on it, time more than well spent. There is a rest which God wants for us. I’m not sure that the God of Scripture is always at rest, so I’m not sure why God would expect us to never become unsettled given the unevenness and even the dangers we encounter in this life. To have such experience doesn’t necessarily mean for one second that one’s faith is abated or lessened. But no matter what the case, whatever our experience might be, God does want us to return to our rest. Like the psalmist, God would have us tell ourselves to return to our rest since God has been good to us.

To some extent I probably need this every day, and really, who doesn’t? And sometimes acutely so. And then we can turn to a Scripture passage like this psalm and be blessed and helped.

learning to rest, relax in God

I love the LORD because he has heard
my voice and my supplications.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the LORD,
“O LORD, I pray, save my life!”

Gracious is the LORD and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The LORD protects the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest,
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.
I walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
I kept my faith, even when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted”;
I said in my consternation,
“Everyone is a liar.”

What shall I return to the LORD
for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD;
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the LORD.
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!

Psalm 116; NRSVue

Life can be exhausting, particularly for some of us and in some circumstances. Right now, given all the fallout in the polarization in society, this seems especially acute. But for some of us, that’s mostly where we live for this or that reason, probably because of a number of factors.

I would like to learn to rest, relax in God. It’s not that I don’t experience any of that, but it seems too few and far between. At the same time when you read the psalm above, you realize that this psalmist along with others in Scripture are often exhausted in turmoil and trouble as well.

I think imagination can be a part of faith. Just imagining what it would be like in the midst of all the challenges, questions, difficulties, dangers, even conundrums of life to still have an inward peace and sense of tranquility. For many of us that seems like a pipe dream, yes, experienced now and then, but most of the time just a nice thought which is difficult even to imagine. Experience is like that, it’s not strictly speaking of the thought realm, but one could say beyond it, just different.

But as we turn our attention to Scripture as in the above passage and to God we can go on no matter what, believing that God will answer our faith, our prayers, and will help us to find our rest in God, as the above passage says, to return to our rest, our true rest in God. Regardless what else. I would like to learn how to live in that rest right in the midst of what ordinarily brings unrest. For that to become my predominant experience.

the “rest” of faith

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For indeed the good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed are entering that rest, just as God has said,

“As in my anger I swore,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ”

though his works were finished since the foundation of the world. For somewhere it speaks about the seventh day as follows, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this place it says, “They shall not enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he sets a certain day—“today”—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God, for those who enter God’s rest also rest from their labors as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

Indeed, the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

Hebrews 4:1-13

Yesterday I talked about how faith that is alive is active. Today, I want to speak to the importance of what is called the “rest” of faith.

A faith that is alive and well can only be a faith that at the same time, rests. Only when we’re resting from our own works will God give us the work God has for us to do (cf.: Ephesians 2:8-10).

The “rest” here refers to believing in God and God’s word to us from scripture, and specifically concerning the good news of Christ for us and for the world. While it is more than that, it is personal. We have to believe and accept this for ourselves.

There will always be off and on temptations to resist this “rest” just as there was with the Israelites of old. They saw this and that, getting their eyes off of God and God’s promises to them. And then they felt that they had to take matters into their own hands. Not good. God corrected them, but not without great consequence.

But when we do rest in faith, then God enables us to do what we could never do ourselves. The “rest” has to be absolute. Never dependent on us, but only on God. We must make sure though that we’re entirely given over to finding this rest, to get out of our own ceaseless resistance to that. If we make a sustained effort, God will indeed help us. We’ll then find our way into all that God has for us. But never apart from that rest. In and through Jesus.

God behind and before us

For you shall not go out in haste,
and you shall not go in flight,
for the LORD will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

Isaiah 52:12

Right before the “suffering servant” passages we have this promise for Israel in the midst of subjugation by the foreign world power of that time, Assyria. All the promises of God we’re told are yes and amen in and through Christ. So, there’s something we can take from this for ourselves this day and time.

God is behind and before us to guide and protect us. We need to live appreciating that. It might well be true for us and is as long as we have faith. But we may not much if at all have any sense or experience of it. This truth should help us not to be afraid or panic as the passage above tells us. Because we have a certain inward rest even in the midst of difficulty, trial, whatnot, just all the inevitable twists and turns that life brings.

God will take care of it. God has our backs and knows all that lies ahead. There’s a certain mysticism which faith in God elicits. We can’t explain or understand it fully, except we know there’s one that fully understands, and though much seems out of control, and is definitely beyond our control, we also know that God is at work in all things for good, somehow in control in the midst of it all. So that our full confidence is only in God. In and through Jesus.

resting

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time on and forevermore.

Psalm 131

There are times when one would like to quit, not life altogether, but take a break from the responsibilities that seem to be crashing in and feel at times crushing. And discouragement is usually close by.

That’s when we need to remind ourselves whose child we are and come to God or more like simply rest in God. Just rest. That is where I find myself today. Just to be present and to be still.

slow down

therefore thus says the Lord GOD,
See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation:
“One who trusts will not panic.”

Isaiah 28:16; NRSVue

There is so much to get done! But we can only do one thing at a time. And are we really meant to do everything? Yes, certain things, okay. But we’re limited. And often we take on more not just out of noble purposes, but maybe at times even ignoble.

Israel of old at large was not being faithful. They did not heed God, having their own agenda, and therefore did not care about God’s promises, much less believe them. Or at best their faith was weak and vacillating. When it came right down to it, they felt it depended on them, their agenda and program they were bent on fulfilling.

But life and we should add God doesn’t let people off the hook so easily. Real life presses in and challenges us, at least eventually, and at every turn. We can’t ignore it. In the case of Israel they felt pressed to be in a hurry, to panic (see NET footnote). They were left to themselves, or felt all depended on them. Eventually panic set in.

Faith rests in God and in God’s promises, God’s promise in Jesus. We need to slow down, to trust, to rest. I find that as I simply purposefully do that, I am much more inclined to trust. One might want to argue that we need to trust first, and then we’ll slow down. That’s true. But sometimes stopping what we’re doing when we’re recognizing that it’s not helpful, and doing what we ought to be doing instead can help us into a better rhythm, and gives us the chance to really hear and understand what God is doing and how we fit in that.

At any rate this is important for me. If something should be done, I find that ordinarily I need to do it deliberately, more often than not, slowly, seeking to keep in step with God, doing so in faith, and not as if all depends on me. Something we do ourselves and would do well to learn to do together as well. In and through Jesus.

our mothering God

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time on and forevermore.

Psalm 131; NRSVue

Probably the most important thing I learned in my first year of college is just what little I know. A world of knowledge was opened up to us, and what I thought I knew was set aside. In that kind of education, one not only sees how little they know, but that oftentimes what we think we know is flat out mistaken.

This psalm touches on that, but that’s not really the heart of it. It’s more about our relationship with God and life from that perspective. I’ve never been a mother, so I can’t speak firsthand here, but the relationship between God and each person is likened to a mother and child, in that culture a weaned child being between three to five years of age (The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha, New Revised Standard Version). A child at that age wants to explore and learn, but they’re still quite dependent on their mother.

Childishness is spoken of in Scripture as a sign of immaturity, but childlikeness quite the opposite, a mark of maturity. Jesus said we must repent and become like children to enter into God’s kingdom. In that sense remaining a child.

I’m not sure I’ve ever learned this, or maybe I should say not obviously so to me, though in indirect ways I’m becoming more that way. Just the sense of need for God correlates to this, even if we aren’t aware of enjoying and experiencing enough of that care.

Yes, it’s motherly care that God’s care is likened to here. But as the psalm tells us here, the child is to take it on themselves to calm down. Probably God is calming us down as well, since surely God does that for all of us as God’s children. But we often resist that, for whatever reasons. Instead we’re to let down our guard and let God. You might say in the well known if often misunderstood phrase: “Let God and let God.”

We are completely dependent on God for everything. Do we really believe that? Do we really believe that we truly understand nothing aright or well apart from God’s help? Do we really believe that God in God’s love will take care of us, or even that we’re actually in need of that care?

None of this means that we can be immature. In fact in this picture immaturity is a denial of this, and maturity an acceptance. A hard one for us to accept on our own. I’m having trouble with this right now. I want to unlearn so much and learn what God directly would like to teach me. I would like to experience so much more of God’s motherly care.

And we’re all in this together. Together we’re to put our hope in God in this way from now on and forever.