The Lord is My Trust

" ⁴Blessed is the man who makes
the LORD his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after a lie!
⁵You have multiplied, O LORD my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told."

Psalm 40: 4-5 (ESV)

Living a changed life requires us to do more than just allowing the Lord to lift us out of sin. Check out what verse 4 says:

"Blessed is the man who makes
the LORD his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after a lie!"

In order to live a changed life, we have to allow what has happened to us to change our hearts. We have to put our whole trust in the Lord.  We have to turn our backs to what the world tells us, and the things it worships. The world tells us that we can do it all on our own. It tells us that if we are better than most people, then we will be okay. So many people buy into that today. Christian people included. We accept Christ into our lives, and turn around and say "Well thanks for saving me, but I've got it from here". And yet, we still jump right back into our pits of sin, just like we talked about yesterday. Wake up church! The only way that we can keep from that is through the power of God. Without him, we have no power over the sins that we find ourselves in. We have to turn our backs to the lie that we can do it on our own. We have to relinquish the control.

Continuing on in verse 5, David praises the Lord:

"You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim them and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told"

I don't even know how to begin explain the wonder and awe that I have when I think of all that the Lord has done in and through my life. I run out of words. I know that the Lord promises to take care of us,  to lead us in the way that we should go, and to fulfill HIS purpose in our lives, but there is just one stipulation: we have to let him. We have to trust that he has a plan, and that he alone has the power to deliver us from our struggles and make our lives a testimony to his mercy.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths"
Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV)

Notice the stipulation. Trust and he will do this.

Check out Hebrews 11! The majority of the chapter goes a little something like this: By faith, _________ did this and God did this. By faith, this person followed a crazy plan, and trusted in a God that they could not see, and in spite of their sins and failures, God used them. God pulled them out of their miry pits and he set them on a straight path and led them and used them for his glory. And all because, what? They had faith. They trusted. They allowed their lives to be a testament to the mercy and the righteousness of the Lord.

My friends, we have to trust. We have to trust that the Lord has greater plans for us than we do for ourselves. We have to get out of the drivers seat, and let God drive, trusting that he knows where we are going. That he sees the dead ends, the traps, the bumps in the road. Because until we do, the Lord will not be able to "fulfill his purpose" for us, as promised in Psalm 138:8. We will live empty, void lives. We will reach no one for Christ, because we will be so full of ourselves that no one will be able to see him shining in our lives. That is a pretty depressing thought to me. We are commanded to spread the good news of his salvation, to make disciples. How sad is it that most will never be able to fulfill that promise because we are too self-serving to let the Lord use us in the way that he intends? All because we fail to trust in the Lord's strength, and his strength alone? After he paid so much for our sin. Think about it. Jesus paid the price so we could be saved. He paid the highest price. And for what? So we can continue speaking the language of the world? So that we could worship our possessions? So that we can look at trash on the internet? So that we can fill our minds and our hearts full of the garbage that the world feeds us through television, music, and the like? I don't know about you, but that makes me feel sick to my stomach. The things that we do and consider "little sins" came at a big price to Christ. These things are nothing but filthy pits....and Christ paid the ultimate price so that we could be free of these things, and yet...we are content to wallow in them. While it sickens me that I so often allow myself to do and say things that spit in the face of my Savior's sacrifice for me, I take faith when I realize that through his strength, I can overcome those things and allow him to pull me up out of them. But we have to trust first. It is then, that the Lord can use our lives in a way that is totally glorifying to him, and way better than we could ever choose for ourselves. Trust, my friends, trust.

Trusting as I wait,
Alicia
Psalm 138:8