“Declare me innocent, O Lord, for I have acted with integrity; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart. For I am always aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth.”
Psalm 26:1-3 NLT
Do we pilgrims “[trust] in the Lord without wavering”? You see, there is a whole Bible full of the promises of God, but do we trust in them? Do we actually trust in our Creator God for all we need in life? Or do we pay lip service to the Scriptures and continue to live our lives our way, full of problems and anxious moments, without any reference to the promises of God? There is a section in Matthew 6 that records the words of Jesus about worry and the needs of life, and He said, “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs” (Matthew 6:31-32). Do we trust in what Jesus said?
There is a connection between “faith” and “trust”. Faith is described famously in Hebrews 11:1, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see“, and there then follows a long list of Old Testament saints with evidence of their faith in God. Faith does not put trust in bank account balances, headline news, or the doctor’s report. Paul described what we should do instead, “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever” (2 Corinthians 4:18). In the following chapter we read, “For we live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And the importance of faith is exposed in Hebrews 11:6, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him“. So the practical, living-day-by-day, outworking of faith in God is trust, trusting Him with our lives, trusting Him for all we need for life, such as a roof over our heads, the food on our tables, and the clothes we wear. Trusting Him for a solution when the going gets tough. And ultimately we trust Him to bring us across the Great Divide into His presence. We do so because we have faith in our amazing and wonderful God.
Sadly, there are many Christians who aren’t too sure about God and His promises. It is easy to trust God and have faith in Him when all is good. The Sunday meeting’s worship elevated us to new heights of praise, the message from the preacher encouraged us greatly, but then Monday morning came along with some bad news. A loved one has an incurable illness. The boss calls us into his office and gives us some terminal news about our jobs. Or just some simple and seemingly insignificant occasion drags us into despair. It is so difficult sometimes to extend Sunday’s euphoria into the mundane of Monday and beyond. James wrote about such people, “ … be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do” (James 1:6b-8). Do we believe in faith that God is there for us regardless of what is happening around us? Paul wrote, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). Isaiah wrote, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock” (Isaiah 26:3-4).
But we pilgrims, on our journeys to glory, find day by day that God can indeed be trusted with our lives. We fall, but He picks us up. We sin, but He forgives us. We pray, and He answers. And slowly, we learn to trust Him with more and more. In faith we reach out and see the results of our faith. So the newspaper headlines scream out doom and gloom, but we live in an oasis of trusting in God, unmoved by the panic around us. So the doctors tell us bad news but we respond as a friend of mine told me about recently. In his office the doctor him that he had cancer, but my friend shared his faith and testimony, putting the bad news into the background and instead he talked about the One in whom he had put his trust. Many years later, my friend is still with us, and there is no sign of the cancer.
Er read in Psalm 20:7-8, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm”. We could write our own versions of those verses, but in the end we vocally declare our trust in God alone. We sing the hymn, “In Christ alone, my hope is found” and the first verse ends with “Here in the love of Christ I stand“. But in all the hassles of life, the last verse is a public declaration, containing these words, “No power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand“. We will no be immune from the challenges of living in this sin-ridden world, but we can rise above them with “unwavering trust” through Jesus, who made it all possible.
Dear Father God. We worship You, the Centre of our universe, and the Saviour of the world. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 