Psalm 46:1-6, 10-11
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
. . . . .
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
I was talking with a person last Thursday, in a counseling setting, and this person was expressing their frustration about a situation they are currently involved in. They are frustrated with the other people involved in the situation, and with the way the situation was moving. They want it all to move faster. They want it to be all over with … to be behind them. They kept assuring me they trusted God’s timeline. “I trust God…but…”
The person used this phrase several times until finally I held up my hand and said something to the effect of: You know you really can’t say that. They stopped and looked a little puzzled. I continued, You really can’t say you ‘trust God … but …’
This applies in any discussion of “trust” but you especially cannot “trust God …but” because the “but’ immediately negates any claim of trust.
Trust is an all-or-nothing proposition. You either do or you don’t. There is no half-in, half-out.
You can say, with complete honesty, such things as “I want to trust God completely” or “I’m trying to trust.” And I think this is what many of us mean, when we say we trust God. And sometimes we think we really do trust God … until we get to that “…but.”
In my life I have found myself in dark places where it seemed that trusting God was the only option open to me. And yet, I knew full well that I wasn’t very good at it – and I found myself forced to confront that unspoken “…but.” Forced to say things like, I going to trust you even though I don’t feel very trustful – I’m going to say the words and trust that you will help me to eventually feel it. And God honored that pathetic prayer and in time I was able to recognize that God had come through for me – not in the way I initially wanted, but still – God had come through for me and with me.
The Psalm we just read sets a very high standard for us. It most clearly does not say that we can trust God because God is always going to jump in and fix everything for us – give us everything we think we need. God is most decidedly not Santa Claus. [For that matter, when did Santa Claus ever give you everything you thought you wanted?]
None of us has reached the age we are today without at least once or twice being forced to acknowledge that things around us are most definitely not OK. This isn’t what we prayed for. We don’t get the job we really, really want. The medical test comes back with a not-good result. Someone we love dearly does die in spite of our best prayers.
What the Psalm does tell us is to trust God even if the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Even if everything literally falls to pieces, even if the worst possible thing happens. And that is hard. I suspect in actual everyday life that it is impossible. And so we aim at something close. We manage the best we can. We trust God to be there even when it doesn’t go the way we want it to go.
When we honestly trust God with our lives, we pray…and then we accept what comes as the answer for those prayers – even if it is light-years away from the thing we asked for. We accept that God is with us here and will guide us through. And if we have really practiced trusting then we one day wake up to realize that where we are is exactly the best place for us to be. Not only a place that we can make work, but the very place that gives us our deepest joy. THIS, not the thing we asked for, is what gives us joy and life – and we might never have asked for it because we never even knew it was an option for us.
God knows stuff like this.
"Be still and know that I am God..." Knowing that God is God lies at the heart of trusting. Trusting God is going on with our lives knowing that it is going to be all right – somehow, it is going to be all right. Trusting God is waking up that one morning and recognizing that it is, indeed, all right – somehow it really is. And life is good. And God’s goodness surround us. And there is joy in the world – in spite of all the terrible things that happen. Somehow – we recognize God’s presence in us and around us – and we know that God is taking care of things. And God is taking care of us.
Be still and know .....
The person used this phrase several times until finally I held up my hand and said something to the effect of: You know you really can’t say that. They stopped and looked a little puzzled. I continued, You really can’t say you ‘trust God … but …’
This applies in any discussion of “trust” but you especially cannot “trust God …but” because the “but’ immediately negates any claim of trust.
Trust is an all-or-nothing proposition. You either do or you don’t. There is no half-in, half-out.
You can say, with complete honesty, such things as “I want to trust God completely” or “I’m trying to trust.” And I think this is what many of us mean, when we say we trust God. And sometimes we think we really do trust God … until we get to that “…but.”
In my life I have found myself in dark places where it seemed that trusting God was the only option open to me. And yet, I knew full well that I wasn’t very good at it – and I found myself forced to confront that unspoken “…but.” Forced to say things like, I going to trust you even though I don’t feel very trustful – I’m going to say the words and trust that you will help me to eventually feel it. And God honored that pathetic prayer and in time I was able to recognize that God had come through for me – not in the way I initially wanted, but still – God had come through for me and with me.
The Psalm we just read sets a very high standard for us. It most clearly does not say that we can trust God because God is always going to jump in and fix everything for us – give us everything we think we need. God is most decidedly not Santa Claus. [For that matter, when did Santa Claus ever give you everything you thought you wanted?]
None of us has reached the age we are today without at least once or twice being forced to acknowledge that things around us are most definitely not OK. This isn’t what we prayed for. We don’t get the job we really, really want. The medical test comes back with a not-good result. Someone we love dearly does die in spite of our best prayers.
What the Psalm does tell us is to trust God even if the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Even if everything literally falls to pieces, even if the worst possible thing happens. And that is hard. I suspect in actual everyday life that it is impossible. And so we aim at something close. We manage the best we can. We trust God to be there even when it doesn’t go the way we want it to go.
When we honestly trust God with our lives, we pray…and then we accept what comes as the answer for those prayers – even if it is light-years away from the thing we asked for. We accept that God is with us here and will guide us through. And if we have really practiced trusting then we one day wake up to realize that where we are is exactly the best place for us to be. Not only a place that we can make work, but the very place that gives us our deepest joy. THIS, not the thing we asked for, is what gives us joy and life – and we might never have asked for it because we never even knew it was an option for us.
God knows stuff like this.
"Be still and know that I am God..." Knowing that God is God lies at the heart of trusting. Trusting God is going on with our lives knowing that it is going to be all right – somehow, it is going to be all right. Trusting God is waking up that one morning and recognizing that it is, indeed, all right – somehow it really is. And life is good. And God’s goodness surround us. And there is joy in the world – in spite of all the terrible things that happen. Somehow – we recognize God’s presence in us and around us – and we know that God is taking care of things. And God is taking care of us.
Be still and know .....
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