Twenty-Two Years of Trust
One of the most often heard words that falls freely from a believer’s lips would be the word, trust. Strangely, it is one of the easiest words to pronounce and define, yet one of the most difficult words to live by.
The etymological root system is a combination of two words true and standing. You have the combination saying, “standing true.” In Danish the word is tröst which means consolation. The Saxon word is trywsian, meaning to trust or obligate. In this simple word study, let’s examine what it means to trust. Trust means:
1. Confidence; a reliance or resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship or other sound principle of another person such as God.
Boaz stood in awe of Ruth! She left her land, her people, her false gods and by faith moved to a land she had never seen. While there she met and married the man who would give her a little baby that placed her into the genealogy of the Lord Jesus. Boaz said, “The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust” (Ruth 2:12).
Ruth was solidly and squarely standing true in confidence under the Lord’s wings! The anchoring of her walk is expressed in the following words, “And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me” (Ruth 1:16,17).
2. To live in confident expectation, anticipation, or hope.
One of the most challenging and convicting passages in Holy Scriptures that drives me to my knees in trust has to be Proverbs 3:5 and 6, which says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path.”
This glorious passage reminds me of the little lady who gave the secret of her contentment, “I just throw myself out of gear and let the Lord do the pushing.”
3. That which is committed to one’s care.
Paul said, “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (II Timothy 1:12). We can trust God to keep us saved when we give Him our hearts in salvation.
We can also trust God when we give Him our lives in surrendered service to Him. Yesterday, January 18, marks the twenty-second year of my pastorate at Christchurch. We did not know all the blessings or the trials God had for us in store when we moved, but we obeyed Him! I remember two days later hearing the words of President Ronald Regan in his first inaugural address. As Peggy Noonan said, “The inauguration … broke precedent, being held on the west side of the Capitol for the first time in history. Reagan wanted to look west, toward Illinois, where he had been born, and California, where he had become a public figure – toward the country that had chosen him in a landslide. The usual tens of thousands of people showed a great expanding pool of humanity. There were flags and bunting, choirs and cannon. He saw in the distance, at the far end of the Mall, the glittering dome of the Lincoln Memorial.” It was overcast that day, but as he stood behind the podium and laid his hand upon his mother’s Bible he had opened it to a verse she had marked years earlier, II Chronicles 7: 14, “If my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn form their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Next to the verse, I have seen in the Ronald Regan Museum where Nelle Reagan, his mother, had written very legibly with her own hand the words, “A most wonderful verse for the healing of the nations.” Little did that humble lady know years later her son would lay his left hand on that exact statement and raise his right hand into the air before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and take his oath of office. Just as he lifted his hand, the sun burst through the clouds. He later remembered this as, “an explosion of warmth and light.” Reagan’s words at the end of his speech reflected his view with the destiny that the day brought forth, “Standing here, one faces a magnificent vista….”
I was thinking of how our move to Houston and the starting of this church paralleled the presidency of Ronald Reagan. As I look back I can well recall the “magnificent vista” before us of young families and dreams. They were calling Houston in those days “Boom City.” It certainly became that for us, as we committed our lives to God for service here. Later, President Reagan would visit Houston after the Challenger astronauts had given their lives in attempting to become launched into space. In his speech he quoted from that beautiful poem, High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. which says, “Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth…Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.” I love Houston! It is here more than anywhere, by faith we have slipped the surly bonds of earth and in trust, touched the face of God. It has been to us a combination of the patriarch Jacob’s Bethel (House of God) and Penuel (Face of God). Today, I can say with Paul, “I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
- Pastor Pope -