Trustworthy!

Trustworthy!

Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength: Isaiah 26:4 KJV

In order to fully understand the text for today, it is important to look at and consider the verse just before it: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. There is a peace on offer for all who dare trust in God. Trust is not easy, especially when the basis or object of the trust is not seen or visible. That is why trust is hard, but also easy for those who have tasted of the benefits of trusting in God. You see, trusting in God does not deny the fact that there may be a storm brewing, winds blowing or trials pressing on you, but there is a focus on the right person, who is able to calm your heart in the midst of the most depressing circumstances. That is where trust takes its power from: that in spite of the facts in front of me, there is a presence in me that is even surer than the things that I face. 

Trust is also built over time, and would not happen overnight. That is why I have a lifetime to build confidence in God's ability to keep his promises and to secure my life to the end. He does not ask me to trust him just because, but he gives me valid reasons why I am better off with him. One of such reasons is because of his name and identity, which are the foundations of all that he does and gives. One of the names that God is called in the Old testament is Jehovah. Without being too academic, there are so many names of Jehovah that speak to who he is and what he gives. You find Jehovah Rapha as the healer, and Jehovah Jireh as the provider, and several others like that. For the men who came up with these names, the experiences they had stayed with them for the rest of their lives. Do you think that for Abraham who saw God provide in strange ways, there was ever a need he could not trust God for? That is the beauty of a personal encounter: you don't have to force people to believe you, but the personal story will speak. 

I cannot claim to trust God for a season and then trust my instincts and senses the other seasons. God is not a seasonal wonder who does tricks for some time and then runs out of steam. This is the same God who proved he could be trusted to Abraham, as well as to Daniel, and then to Paul, all men who lived centuries apart. They lived in different dispensations, but the accounts of their lives all have one common theme: they trusted in God to the end and they were not disappointed. I cannot do any less, trusting God when things are fine, and then holding on to false tokens the other times. Trust cannot be seasonal; it has to be forever, as long as the object of the trust is also the Ever-living God. 

The other reason, as we have laid out, is what God gives to those who trust him, and one of such things is strength. Strength is also who God is, as He is referred to as the Strength of Israel, as God made very clear to king Saul when he disobeyed God's direct order on Amalek. He is Strength, and he gives of that which he is, which is also strength. And because the everlasting God is the one doing the supply, what you get is the everlasting version, not the weak, earthly and impotent version the world supplies. Pray, how can the world secure you from what it does not understand? How can the world provide you with safety and security from death, using something it has been able to kill? How can I look to the world for strength, when the world itself is helpless from the results of its own idiocy and recklessness? That which is the cause of trouble can never provide the solution to that trouble; you need to look outside the cause to find the solution, and that solution is the Eternal God, the One who will surely outlive the world and all that it can offer.

So, which God have you met? Which Lord is your daily strength? Who is the inspiration behind your perspiration? It is when God is your strength that you really can achieve anything. I look at the verse again, and I realise that before I can do or achieve anything of note, I have to first sort out the empowerment part. Who supplies the enabling environment and the staying strength to stand to the end is the One who really should be trusted. He is the One who makes forever worth it. He is the One called the Author and Finisher of our faith, as well as the One who works in us, both to will and to do, according to his good pleasure. He has the whole process sorted out; the one and only thing he asks me to do is trust him. He is trustworthy; evidence and experience support that position. Have you met this God? Have I? Does he know me as His own? God's time of favour is here.