TRUST AND OBEY
Our son, Mikey, regularly goes to work with my husband, Gary, so he can learn Biblical manhood firsthand. While at work last week, the crew had just gotten done pouring a new concrete driveway at one of our properties right before Mikey and Gary had arrived. Mikey didn’t realize the cement was still wet, so he headed towards the driveway to walk across it.
Praise God Gary saw this before Mikey landed his first step onto the wet cement, so he yelled “STOP!!!” Mikey froze with one foot hovering over the newly poured driveway.. While Mikey remained frozen, Gary explained the cement was still wet, and so a very relieved 8 year old boy walked around the new driveway rather than getting stuck in the wet cement.
Mikey trusted the command of his father and obeyed without question or delay.
“He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered.” Proverbs 28:26. The Hebrew language has several different words for the English word, “trust”. In this Proverb, the specific Hebrew word for trust is “batach”, which means “to be confident in or sure of”. So this Proverb is explaining that you are a fool if you are confident in your own heart, but if you walk wisely (which we know from the entire Bible that walking wisely is walking in the fear of the Lord), then you will be delivered from the destructive path that foolishness leads to. So how can we walk in the fear of the Lord and not be confident in our own hearts? We trust and obey.
When Gary came home and told me that story, I heard the Lord say “trust and obey.” That incident ministered to my own heart as I remembered to just trust and obey the Lord. Do not question or delay. It can be hard to trust the Lord when our heart, our mind, our circumstances, and our surroundings tell us otherwise. But the Bible makes it clear that our hearts are deceitfully wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), and we must take our thoughts captive unto the obedience of the Lord (2 Corinthians 10:5), and God has overcome this world and so, in Christ, we can have victory over this world as well. (John 16:33, 1 John 5:4, Romans 8:37).
I’ve seen many children ask “why?” in response to their parents giving them a command. We don’t allow our kids to ask that until after they have first obeyed. First, they must joyfully and immediately do as they were told, then they may inquire as to the reason. If Mikey hadn’t been trained that way, imagine what would have happened when Gary yelled, “stop!”? Mikey would have proceeded to walk onto the wet cement while asking, “why?” and he would have not only been wet and filthy, but he would have cost our business time and money. Had he been sure of or confident in his own knowledge (he had walked across that driveway many times before), then he would have ended up in a foolish situation.
The same principle can be applied in our spiritual lives. Do you question God’s will in your life? Pray for trust in the Lord like Joseph, who endured slavery and false imprisonment yet still had confidence that it was God who sent him there to save his family and all of Israel (Genesis 45).
Do you question God’s timing? Pray for “faith like Sarah…[who] bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.” Hebrews 11:11
Do you question the authority and sufficiency of God’s word? Pray for a radical conversion like Paul so you are given eyes to see who the One True God is (Acts 9).
If you are struggling with trusting and obeying the Lord, I pray you mediate on these verses, and understand the different Hebrew words for “trust” in each of the verses. If you trust and obey the Lord, you need not fear the things of this world.
“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength;, in whom I will CHASAH (trust = LEAN ON).” Psalm 18:2
“In God I will praise His word, in God I have AVATIYACH (trust = CLUNG TO); I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?” Pslam 56:4
“My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, and My arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands will wait upon Me, and on My arm they will YACHAL (trust = HOPE).” Isaiah 51:5
Let us be a people that do not trust in our own understanding, but let us lean on the Lord, cling to the Lord, and hope in the Lord.
#EverythingUnderTheSon
Tiffany Gustafson
