Trust in the Lord...

Psalm 37

Of David.

¹ Do not fret because of evil men
or be envious of those who do wrong;

² for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.

³ Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:

⁶ He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

⁷ Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.

⁸ Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.

⁹ For evil men will be cut off,
but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.

¹⁰ A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look for them, they will not be found.

¹¹ But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy great peace.

¹² The wicked plot against the righteous
and gnash their teeth at them;

¹³ but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he knows their day is coming.

¹⁴ The wicked draw the sword
and bend the bow
to bring down the poor and needy,
to slay those whose ways are upright.

¹⁵ But their swords will pierce their own hearts,
and their bows will be broken.

¹⁶ Better the little that the righteous have
than the wealth of many wicked;

¹⁷ for the power of the wicked will be broken,
but the LORD upholds the righteous.

¹⁸ The days of the blameless are known to the LORD,
and their inheritance will endure forever.

¹⁹ In times of disaster they will not wither;
in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.

²⁰ But the wicked will perish:
The LORD's enemies will be like the beauty of the fields,
they will vanish—vanish like smoke.

²¹ The wicked borrow and do not repay,
but the righteous give generously;

²² those the LORD blesses will inherit the land,
but those he curses will be cut off.

²³ If the LORD delights in a man's way,
he makes his steps firm;

²⁴ though he stumble, he will not fall,
for the LORD upholds him with his hand.

²⁵ I was young and now I am old,
yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
or their children begging bread.

²⁶ They are always generous and lend freely;
their children will be blessed.

²⁷ Turn from evil and do good;
then you will dwell in the land forever.

²⁸ For the LORD loves the just
and will not forsake his faithful ones.
They will be protected forever,
but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off;

²⁹ the righteous will inherit the land
and dwell in it forever.

³⁰ The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom,
and his tongue speaks what is just.

³¹ The law of his God is in his heart;
his feet do not slip.

³² The wicked lie in wait for the righteous,
seeking their very lives;

³³ but the LORD will not leave them in their power
or let them be condemned when brought to trial.

³⁴ Wait for the LORD
and keep his way.
He will exalt you to inherit the land;
when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.

³⁵ I have seen a wicked and ruthless man
flourishing like a green tree in its native soil,

³⁶ but he soon passed away and was no more;
though I looked for him, he could not be found.

³⁷ Consider the blameless, observe the upright;
there is a future for the man of peace.

³⁸ But all sinners will be destroyed;
the future of the wicked will be cut off.

³⁹ The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD;
he is their stronghold in time of trouble.

⁴⁰ The LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.

God has been teaching me new things these days through the trials that I’m going through. Although He’s always teaching me new things, the situation now is unique and I guess it will only happen once in my lifetime. It’s hard, the trials that I’m going through right now, but God made sure that I have peace in my heart. This psalm is God’s reminder to me that he is in control of everything, that all He asks is that I trust in Him fully and seek Him first in everything. v3 said “Trust in the Lord and do good…” In everything that we do, we must always trust God and we must never forget to do good, even if things might seem unfair and hard, even though you feel hurt and angry, we should always do good. I’m not telling you to become martyrs, far from it. What I’m saying here is that even though you are angry and hurt, we should not sin, we shouldn’t do something bad. “In your anger, do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry…” Ephesians 2:26 Rather than being angry, lets just lift up everything to God and believe that even though you are feeling pain and are hurting, God is doing something in your life and in the lives of other people. Let me share to you something that happened to me yesterday.

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a friend (well, at least for me he is a friend) telling me in not so many words that I should stop sending him emails because I don’t send anything useful anyway and that my emails are just a waste of his email space and time. Mind you, I rarely forward messages to my friends and when I do, it’s simply my way of saying that I haven’t forgotten about you or that you are being remembered. So I nicely apologized to him and told him that it won’t happen again. Much to my surprise, he replied and said good because I was just wasting his time and that I should get a life. I was naturally hurt and angry. Since I was in the office, I couldn’t just break down and cry so I was really trying to fight my tears. Anyway, one of my friends said that I should just pray for him, and I found out that I can’t. I was that hurt and angry at what he said. I can’t really help it since I never thought that he is that kind of a person. So anyway, when my friend left for his class I asked God, “why am I feeling this so much pain for something that a person said that I know is not true anyway?”

Sometimes, it’s hard to forgive people who have hurt us, especially if we believe that we don’t deserve such treatment. I know I didn’t. More than that, we sometimes can't see how God is working in our lives. How can He really work in our lives if all that we are feeling are pain and hurt? How can we see His goodness when all that we are experiencing are bad things? If we look at v7, it is said there, "be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him;" God has a reason for everything that is happening in our lives, all that we have to do is trust in Him because God's will is perfect, His plans for you and me are beautiful and perfect, not lacking anything. Never lose hope and say that God is not hearing your prayers or that God is not good to you because He is. The question is, are you seeking His will or are you doing your own will? If you are experiencing hardships or trials in your life, is it because of your own doing or is God trying to call you but you don't want to listen to Him? v4 said, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Courage...

In times of trials and tests, we tend to feel fear and uncertainty about what's happening in our lives and doubt that anything good will come out from such a trying experience. Just recently, I found myself in a situation where my faith and trust in God is stretched way beyond its limit. I thought that I can go through anything that I will experience, good or bad, with a happy heart and a sense of security because I have a God who is, and will always be, in control. To my dismay, when faced with this situation, I felt as unsure and as afraid as a newborn babe who doesn't know what will be the end result of this experience. More than that, I was asking myself, why am I so afraid?!

One thing that I hate the most is being afraid. When I'm afraid, I usually get angry at myself because I see it as a weakness, a weakness that reflects my lack of faith in God; my lack of trust in Him. Maybe some of you might think that I am being too hard on myself, and maybe I am. But my faith is that whenever a storm is raging in my life, I should not fear because God is with me and is in control of everything. So you can just imagine my BIG frustration when I felt fear unlike anything I have ever felt. It was...*sigh* beyond words. However, as much as I am very much afraid, it was still a different experience. Usually, I have the urge to run whenever I have such a great fear. This time, all I feel is the fear, not the urge to run. Also, I easily get angry whenever I feel afraid and I just keep whatever is making me afraid to myself, I don't want anyone to know about it. This time though, I wasn't easily angered and I was sharing most of my fears, if not all, to my friends. So I was thinking, what's different in this situation? Then I read this article that really reminded me what courage is all about. Let me share it with you...

Be Strong and Courageous

Napoleon called Marshall Ney the bravest man he had ever known. Yet Ney's knees trembled so badly one morning before a battle, he had difficulty mounting his horse. When he was finally in the saddle, he shouted contemptuously down at his limbs, "Shake away, knees! You would shake worse than that if you knew where I am going to take you."

Courage is not a matter of being unafraid. It is a matter of taking action even when you are afraid!

Courage is more than shouting with sheer bravado, "I can do this!" and launching out with a "do-or-die" attitude over some reckless dare.

True courage is manifest when you chose to take a difficult of even dangerous course of action simply because it is the right thing to do. Courage is looking beyond yourself to what is best for another.
The Source of all courage is the Holy Spirit, our Comforter. It is His very nature to remain at our side, helping us. When we welcome Him into our lives and He compels us to do something, we can confidently believe that He will be right there, helping us accomplish whatever task He has called us to do.

What more can I say? As much I said the same thing to some of my friends who asked for advices before about fear, I myself forgot about it, at least for a while. Through this article, I am reminded that it's not wrong to be afraid (my friend was also saying that), it's what we do when we are afraid that matters. Looking at how things are in the situation that I'm in right now, I realized that this situation is unique from the others wherein I also experienced fear. This time, God is training me to trust in Him more and to have faith that no matter how hopeless things might seem in my perspective, to God, everything is just going as plan. I guess I’m afraid because this somehow involves my family, what they will say, what they will think. Right now, I am just confident that I am in the right path, the path that God wants me to take. But I still fear. Then I came across Psalm 27:1-3…

¹ The LORD is my light and my salvation — whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life — of whom shall I be afraid?

² When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.

³ Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me, even then will I be confident.

David was right, my confidence is in God, why should I fear? Didn’t God said “…I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” (Joshua 1:5)? People might say things that might hurt me or the people I love, but God is with us always and even though they attack me in any way, I should not fear for God is my light and my salvation, He is the stronghold of my life.

I’m not saying that I will no longer experience or feel fear whenever trials occur in my life, I think that’s impossible. After reading the article I am sure that fear will forever be present in our lives. After all, we are only humans and it is natural that we fear the unknown. But we have a God who has overall dominion over us, so what should I fear? His promise is:

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

More than that, I know that no matter what happened, I am victorious for God is with me. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37). Other version of the Bible states that verse as “Overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us enough to die for us.” (The Living Bible Version)

Honestly, I don’t know how to express what I’m going through right now. But this is all I know: fear will most likely be a part of my life, not in all situations, but in some at least. But I will no longer fear being afraid because I know that God is with me always. After all, God said “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

My prayer right now is Psalm 25:

¹ To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;

² in you I trust, O my God.
Do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.

³ No one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame
who are treacherous without excuse.

⁴ Show me your ways, O LORD,
teach me your paths;

⁵ guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.

⁶ Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.

⁷ Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you are good, O LORD.

⁸ Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.

⁹ He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.

¹⁰ All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

¹¹ For the sake of your name, O LORD,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

¹² Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD ?
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.

¹³ He will spend his days in prosperity,
and his descendants will inherit the land.

¹⁴ The LORD confides in those who fear him;
he makes his covenant known to them.

¹⁵ My eyes are ever on the LORD,
for only he will release my feet from the snare.

¹⁶ Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.

¹⁷ The troubles of my heart have multiplied;
free me from my anguish.

¹⁸ Look upon my affliction and my distress
and take away all my sins.

¹⁹ See how my enemies have increased
and how fiercely they hate me!

²⁰ Guard my life and rescue me;
let me not be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.

²¹ May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because my hope is in you.

²² Redeem Israel, O God,
from all their troubles!

In the mighty name of Jesus, my Lord and my Savior I pray, Amen.