Sunday, March 01, 2009

A Clear Message: Trust

I've noticed over the years that when God is trying to teach me something, He hits me with the message from several angles all at once. He remembers that [I am] dust--in other words, He knows I am thick-headed--and so He patiently, graciously reinforces a truth in a bunch of unrelated ways (people, books, blogs, sermons, etc.) until I finally get it.

The theme these last couple of weeks has been unmistakable: Trust. Some circumstances have come up in my life recently that are tempting me to fear, resentment, bitterness, etc. Yet almost instantly, God invited me, urged me to trust Him. I've been hearing it everywhere, from the lyrics of this song, to the repetition of the word "trust" throughout the entire album, to pulling an old book off my shelf for a totally separate purpose and remembering its theme of trust, to hearing this quote on a podcast, to what I saw on Friday afternoon. I was so blown away by the kindness and mercy of God in speaking so clearly to me on Friday that I have to share the story here.

Back in January, when I thought through a Bible reading plan for this year, I decided that I'd spend the month of March reading Isaiah. Since March starts tomorrow already, I wanted to read the chapter on Isaiah in Mark Dever's wonderful book The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made, to get a good overview.

I opened the book and saw that Dever's title for Isaiah is "Messiah" and thought, "Oh, how appropriate that I'm going to be reading this during Lent!" And then I looked at the outline for the chapter. It went like this:

THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH: MESSIAH

The Problem: Trusting the Wrong Things
-Trusting Other Kings
-Trusting Other Gods
-Trusting Themselves
-Trusting Their Own Unfaithful Leaders
-Whom Shall We Trust?

The Solution: Trusting God
-Trusting God's Coming Judgment
-Trusting God's Coming Deliverance and Salvation
-Whom Shall We Trust?

The Solution Sharpened: Hoping and Trusting in Christ
-Hoping in a Coming Messiah-King
-Hoping in a Coming Servant
-Hoping in the Messiah-King and Servant as One!
-Hoping in Jesus as This One
-In Whom Shall We Hope?

Um. WOW. Could it be any more clear? How amazing is that?

I'm so thankful for powerful reminders of God's sovereignty. I'm thankful that He's trustworthy, that He's good, that He loves me and is for me. And I'm thankful that in His kindness, He reminds me over and over of these truths until they sink deeply into my heart.

1 comment:

sara jean said...

Amy, thank you for this post, I am so encouraged today! I'm needing this message of Trust as well. I am spending Lent studying through the book of Ruth in a few different ways in order to really solidify the fact the Lord is my provider and protector, and that He is trustworthy in all circumstances.