Psalm 37:3 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.” This episode talks about how important trust in the Lord is and also how He is calling us to help those in need. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Trust In The Lord And Do Good
Psalm 37:3 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.”
This verse says so much in one short sentence. It is calling us to so much and it is also offering us so much. The very first thing it says is, “trust in the Lord and do good.” Even just those 7 words are calling us to a lot. Trust in the Lord is something that is so important and yet not always easy to do. It is easier to trust when all is going well and you can see your way forward. However, what about when you can’t. What about when you can’t see the way forward and you are unsure of what to do? I have a friend who chose the word trust this year because she felt that she was not trusting in God’s plan enough.
She was constantly worrying about her children, her husband, her job, her future. She knew she needed to leave her job because it was not great for her mental health. However, she worried if she could leave it. Would the amount she have in savings be enough? Would she be able to find a different job with less hours? Would she make enough to pay all the bills? What if her kids needed money? What if her husband lost his job? She was full with what ifs. She didn’t want to keep living this way. She wanted to be able to trust that God had a plan and that He would take care of the details.
Does this mean that she should just quit her job and not worry about anything. No, that is not what I am saying and this is not what she did either. She looked for another job, and trusted that the right job would come along. Was it easy, no. Every time she got a job offer that was not what she wanted she considered it because of that fear that the right job wouldn’t come along. However, she had decided at the beginning of the year that she was going trust more and so she did have to turn down a few wrong fits before the right fit came along. Meanwhile she kept her other job knowing that it wouldn’t be forever and that God would get her through. Sometimes just knowing there is an end to something makes it easier to get through.
She found a new job that was half as many hours and much less stress. It was exactly what she was looking for. She was able to quit her other job and she is much less stressed out now. Does she still worry if she will run out of savings, yes. However, she is worrying about it less now because she saw how God took care of the job situation. Does she still worry about her kids, grandkids, and husband, yes, because trust in God is a journey and not an overnight realization.
Trust in God is not a one time thing. It is a decision that we need to make over and over again, sometimes many times a day. Trust in God is not a feeling, it’s a decision, it’s a choice. You may not feel like you trust in God, but are you moving forward even when you are scared? Are you moving forward even when you don’t know the next 10 steps ahead? We had a word given at prayer group one time that said, “Trust in me. Do not be afraid. You must choose to hope and trust in me. It is a choice; it is not a feeling. When darkness comes choose hope, love, trust; choose me.” My brother has a quote at the end of every email he sends. This quote says, “There will be times you want to quit every good thing you do in this life, persist. Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the mastery of it.”
I love this quote because it speaks to each one of us. I am sure there have been things that you have wanted to do and yet you were scared. Maybe you trusted in the Lord and did them anyway, and maybe you didn’t. Either way, you can appreciate what this quote is saying. There will always be things we worry about. I don’t know that trust in the Lord means that you will never worry about anything ever again. I think it means that when you do worry, you will choose to move forward anyway trusting that He will take care of you.
The next part of the verse says “and do good.” Father Mike talked about this in his podcast today. Well, if you are up to date it wasn’t today, but I am a bit behind. He was talking about how we are not just called to be good Christian people, but that we are also called to works of mercy as well. Father Mike said it is not enough to just believe in God and to be a good person. We need to ask ourselves how we can use the fruit that God gave us to help those around us.
He is not saying that we need to fly to Calcutta and help the poor on the streets of India. We need to look on either side of us. Who can we help? Are you a parent, and your feeding and clothing your children? Are you a son or daughter and are you taking care of your parents or grandparents? Is there a local food pantry you can donate food to or volunteer at? Is there a clothing drive or a Toys for Tots drive you can donate to? Where in your neighborhood could you give back some of what God has given to you? James 2:18 comments, "Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." James chapter 2 ends by insisting that, "faith apart from works is dead" (James 2:26). What can you do to give back to the community or to help those in need?
We are not far from Christmas season, which is a great time to help those less fortunate. A lot of churches have what they call a giving tree. They ask local families who need a little help at Christmas time to provide needs or wants. Then they write these things on tags and put them on the tree. Then the parishioners take home these tags and buy the presents for those that need them. This is a great way to give back and to help those in need. If your church doesn’t have one of these, maybe check out other local churches. Also, during the holidays, it is a great idea to check in with local shelters and see if they need anything. Warm socks are a big thing for homeless shelters especially in the winter months.
One of my sisters and her family use to go out to the homeless in Worcester and hand out packed lunches. They would make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and put an apple and bottle of water, or something like that. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was there way to give back. Now, her daughter which goes to school in Boston has a bag of snacks in her car at all times. When she sees someone on the side of the road asking for money she gives them some food. Our children are always watching us. If we show them how important it is to help those in need, they will do the same when they grow up. Yesterday I talked about how giving my parents were. There are 11 children in my family and although we may all be different, there isn’t a single one of us that would see someone in need and not help. That is not how we were raised. What can you do this week to help someone in need?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we ask that you help us to trust you more and more with each passing day. Lord, we ask that you help us to see that trusting you is a choice and not a feeling and help us to be strong enough to make that choice. We want to trust you Lord. Help us to do good Lord Jesus. Show us the people in our lives that need our help. Shine a light on those that we could be helping. Lord, we ask you to put in on our hearts to give back even more than we already are. Lord we love you and we long to be like you. You gave everything you had for us, help us to repay that debt and give all that we have to others. Lord thank you for all that you are and all that you do. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Just a reminder that this week’s character trait to be more like Jesus is Gentle. I will keep a link for the two articles in the show notes in case you haven’t signed up for the challenge yet and you want to take a look at the articles. One of them is titles, “Gentleness is Strength: The 7 Habits of Highly Gentle People.” (Click here for article) The other one is titled, “22 Unusual Ways To Be Gentle With Yourself.” (Click here for article) If you still want to sign up to receive the emails right to your inbox you can email me at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com or (click here to signup) I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day.