DAY 204

TRUST GOD...AGAIN

Psalm 31 & 32 and Acts 23:16-35

“Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress” and “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven…for when I kept silent my bones wasted away.” Both these verses capture the tone of the Psalms for today.

In the first we have David as he runs from Saul. You remember the story. David has been anointed the king, but Saul is still alive and on the throne. Saul is extremely jealous of David and pursues him in order to kill him. David, on the other hand, despite two opportunities to kill Saul and “relieve his own distress” refuses to kill the Lord’s anointed. David puts his trust in God rather than rely on his own strength.

In the second we have David after he has committed adultery with Bathsheba. David feels tremendous guilt for his sin. For days he will not eat, using his fasting to plead with God to spare the child that was conceived by this sinful act. Yet in this Psalm we read how David has gotten the other side of his sin and allowed God’s forgiveness to restore him. In fact, he writes that failing to confess his sin caused his “bones to waste away.” The point is that sin is bad, but unconfessed and unrepentant sin is worse…it destroys. Confessing sin required trusting the God will forgive and not punish – sometimes when we have trouble “forgiving ourselves” it is really rooted in whether or not we trust God for His forgiveness.

In Acts of the Apostles we read about how a plot to kill Paul is thwarted. This is quite a brazen “lot” as they are going to ambush the Roman guard. Paul has been trusting God all along this appointed journey.

In point of fact, both Psalms and Acts display, and invite us to, trust in God: for deliverance from enemies and for deliverance from our own sin. It should not surprise you that in the course of a daily blog which is reading through the Bible that there are recurring themes. The Bible is not full of an infinite number of themes, one for each day. No, the Bible has a short list of godly traits and characteristics that we are invited to adopt as our own.

You might be saying, “Yeah, I get it, but how, how do I develop an attitude of trust?” One way is to make a list of all the times God has forgiven you, delivered you, been faithful to you, protected you. What does your list look like? No doubt there may be some times you perceive He did not do those things…be careful that you don’t assign someone else’s sin against you (or your sin) to God’s motivation…rather think of those moments when He who is faithful and trustworthy…has been. And then just sit back and drink those times into your soul, and over time your attitude will meld into an attitude of trusting God.

By the way, I chose this picture for two reasons: first I love this movie (The Princess Bride) and second I need to practice what I preach...I need to learn to Trust God...if someone watched me during a week they might say, "I do not think "Trust God means what you think it means, because you don't seem to be doing it!"