The past is the seasoned instruction manual.
Today is here. We often start well, and then, well . . . the night often takes away our song.
But the Word is good news to the weary soul. God’s love is higher than man’s. His love is steadfast with mercies that never end:
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness”Lamentations 3:22,23.
When our desire is to believe God greater, and know Him with more depth of understanding, seek Him with thirst and hunger, and experience His blessing,
are we surprised when we find ourselves, “poor in spirit,” or in a place of mourning? What did Jesus tell the multitudes on the hill that day? What is Jesus telling me, this day . . . Matthew 5, in a New Living Translation:
We pray for His kingdom to come. We ask for mercy, comfort, vision.
But what of our hearts? The old hymn reminds us to sing:
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
But it’s not all sunshine and roses. The thorns line the stem of the flower’s glorious face. Jeremiah was a prophet of God. He did the good will of God and . . . wrote of his experience:
I am the man who has seen affliction
by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.
He has driven me away and made me walk
in darkness rather than light;
indeed, he has turned his hand against me
again and again, all day long.
He has made my skin and my flesh grow old
and has broken my bones.
He has besieged me and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
He has made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead Jeremiah 3:1-6.
The desperate story continues, but something happens in the reading. All of a sudden, I can see more than Jeremiah and my own loss and toils, I see Jesus. Yes, He is the One I see . . .
He drew his bow
and made me the target for his arrows.
He pierced my heart
with arrows from his quiver.
I became the laughingstock of all my people;
they mock me in song all day long.
He has filled me with bitter herbs
and given me gall to drink. Jeremiah 3:12-15.
If Jeremiah can remember the faithfulness of God through the hardship, and I see Jesus through the Word, how He suffered for me, and died for my shame, yet rose that I might have victory,
then the song, Trust and Obey now makes full sense. Yes, I can sing of His steadfast love because Jesus satisfied all that’s required of me.
“It is finished,” He said. I believe this today. Today, I’m complete, and my heart sings with greater understanding:
But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.
Today, I lay it all on the altar. And ask that He give me grace to trust and obey. And let us grow in our faith, as we sing along the way:
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.
Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey.
He is our hope, today, yesterday, forever.
In Jesus, we can be made new, even right now: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 1 Corinthians 5:17.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
