Commit Your Way to the Lord

This past weekend our friends had a garage sale. We stopped by the day before to drop off some tables. Of course, I had to peruse what they already had laid out. On the book table was a golden music book with a green design. My face lit up. It was The Reader’s Digest Treasury of Best Loved Songs. Some of you may be wondering what is so fantastic about it. When I was young and we would visit my Dad’s parents, I would often sit with my Grandma at her organ. Grandma would play from the songbook, and we would sing together. She introduced me to “The Sunny Side of the Street”, “Yes! We Have No Bananas Today” and “Show Me the Way to Go Home”. (As I got older, I wasn’t sure why we sang a drinking song, but it was one of my favorites at the time.)

Our friends were willing to give me the songbook. I said no. We don’t have a piano. I didn’t need more stuff in the house. As we talked, my eyes kept darting back to the songbook. I went back over and touched the cover. Smiled. Our friends offered it to me again. I said no. I hesitated. Finally, I grabbed it, and we took it home.

Our trust in God can be like that sometimes. We go back and forth. We waiver. We resolve one thing, but then we dwell on it more and change our minds. We trust something to God and then five minutes later, we have taken it back and are trying to solve the issue on our own. Or other times, we trust our situation to God when it is relatively easy to do so, but then things get more difficult, and we want to take back our commitment.

This past week Psalm 37 challenged me especially focusing in on verses 3, 5 and 7a.

Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness . . .

Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act . . .

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him.

I observed four interrelated aspects in these verses: Faith, Whom our faith is in, our obedience and God’s action. First, we begin with faith or trusting God (vs 3 and 5). Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It is often easier to place our faith in something seen; something that is tangible like a person, a job, money, the government, health or even our church. We also like to put our faith in things we can control, but God calls us to something more, something infinitely better.

In Philippians 4:6 we are commanded, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” All the things we worry about are taken to God. If we are truly trusting, genuinely bringing things to God in faith, we are acting on the assurances and convictions we know to be true for those who are in Christ. One familiar assurance is that God is working everything for our good to conform us to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:28-29). We have the guarantee that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39). We have the assurance of eternal life with God (John 3:36) to name a few. This leads us to Whom our faith is in.

Second, David tells us to trust in the Lord. I regularly challenge you to look for all the “God is” words and phrases in the Scripture you read. This is why. We need constant reminding (or at least I do) of who God is. Yes, we know in our heads, but we don’t always live in light of the truth of who God is. God is omniscient. Not only does He know everything, but He has all wisdom and understanding. He knows every last detail of your circumstance. He is omnipotent. He has all power to make happen whatever in His wisdom needs to happen. He loves you and is working for your good. His mercies are new every morning. Even when you are focusing on what is wrong in your circumstance, God’s is still lavishing His mercy and grace on you. God is faithful. He isn’t going to decide part way through this journey that He has better things to do. He does what He said He will do. He is sovereign. Your circumstance will never surprise God. There will never be an element that slips by Him. I could keep going, and I hope that you will. When you are struggling with trusting God or you are running back to “retrieve” what you already trusted to Him, stop! Take time to meditate on who God is.

Third, David calls us to obedience. We are to “do good.” There are many ways we can do good. In relation to trusting God, we can choose to act in accordance with trusting God – not worrying, being kind or generous, be thankful, love others, etc.

We are to “befriend faithfulness.” Faithfulness does not come naturally, but thankfully it is a fruit of the Spirit. We need to cultivate faithfulness whether this means posting Scripture where we see it every day, asking God to grow us in faithfulness or calling or texting a friend to pray for us when we are struggling with faithlessness. We shouldn’t expect that faithfulness will just happen. Lately, I have been praying every day to remain faithful to God’s truth in a specific situation. This means taking thoughts captive that don’t glorify God. It means instead focusing on things that are above, the things that will glorify God.

Befriending faithfulness ties into “Commit your way to the Lord.” A friend sent me a video of a women’s Bible study on Ruth last week. "Commit your way to the Lord" jumped out at me. Trusting God with our situation takes commitment. We don’t just throw up a quick prayer “trusting” God with our situation and skip off thinking all will be perfect now. Whatever our circumstance is, the real battle is not against flesh and blood. It is spiritual. This past year I have been learning how relentlessly Satan attacks. He’s committed against me, so I need to be committed to trusting God. If I’m not committed, when things get more difficult, I will shift my trust to something other than God, be overtaken with despair or give in to sinful responses. Some dear friends of ours still remain committed to trusting God and being faithful in something that occurred several years ago. Why? Things can still pop up. You may run into a person that was connected with the original situation. Others may bring the situation up. Your own thoughts may revert back. God is committed to you. He’s even given you His Spirit to indwell and equip you. Be purposeful in committing your way to the Lord.

In verse 7 we see another way we walk in obedience, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” I’ve written on waiting a couple of times, so I won’t belabor this. I do want you to focus on the “Be still before the Lord.” If we are trusting God, we aren’t yammering in His ear with advice on how to handle the situation. Go back to your “God is” statements and that will probably silence you. We also need to wait patiently. God’s timeline is rarely the same as ours. Repeatedly asking Him, “Are we there yet?” won’t make Him adjust one nanosecond of His timing.

Fourth, verse 5 promises us that God will act. We don’t know how (likely not the way we would). We don’t know when, but He will. God won’t forget about us. David wrote this Psalm because it seemed like the wicked were prospering and the righteous were suffering. However, he keeps coming back to the truth that God will act on behalf of the righteous and the wicked will be punished. Your situation may not involve the wicked per say, but we can still take comfort and encouragement that God will act on our behalf. That doesn’t mean that God promises to remove our circumstance or that we will even see resolution in this life, but we do know that His mercies are new every morning while we are on earth and that one day, we will be with God forever where there is no more mourning, crying, pain, sin or death.

For those in Christ, God has already acted on our behalf in the most amazing way. Jesus’ death and resurrection broke the power of sin in our lives. He transferred us from the domain of darkness to His kingdom. He made His beloved children. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin even the sin we have yet to commit and gave us His perfect record of righteousness. He gave us His Spirit and His Word. God has acted abundantly.

Reflection

1. What do you need to trust to the Lord?

2. Which of God’s attributes do you need to dwell on to fuel your faith in Him?

3. What are specific steps you can take to commit your way to the Lord? Do you need an accountability or prayer partner? What Scripture can you meditate on? Is there something you need to remove from your life that is hindering or distracting you (Hebrews 12:1)?