Day 24 Trust

Day 24          Trust

 

I am fascinated by birds. They capture my heart as no other animal. I believe that God sent me a sweet Carolina Wren to teach me an important lesson about trust. She built her nest in a plant just outside the window where I watch the news each morning. I noticed her diligently bringing the materials to line her nest, and wondered if she had picked a good location.  Three eggs were laid in this carefully built nest, completely exposed to the harsh elements like rain, close enough to the ground where the cats outside could make a tasty meal. Oh how I worried about that sweet bird…jumping to the window to see what she was doing at the slightest sound.

I was watching her this morning, coffee in hand, and it dawned on me. She has no worries! She built her nest, laid her eggs, and sits patently day after day for the eggs to hatch. She leaves the nest to eat, she sometimes brings new debris like hair and moss to freshly line the bottom, and she chirps her satisfaction at her amazing feat…and gently settles in to protect her eggs…even in the midst of the horrible thunder storm outside as I write.

As I watched her confidently guard her nest this morning I was reminded of the verse in Matthew where he takes care of the birds, and how I should be trusting him more to carry me through this difficult time. Matthew 6: 25- 34 give us these carefully penned words to tell where our trust should be.

²⁵Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

   ²⁶Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

   ²⁷Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

   ²⁸And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

   ²⁹And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

   ³⁰Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

   ³¹Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

   ³²(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

   ³³But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

   ³⁴Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

 

David, a man who knew much pain, knew this kind of trust. He saw death, war, destruction of lives from bad relationships, and distress of all kinds. He wrote this important Psalm in the midst of his own pain. He speaks of the importance of trusting God to deliver us from all our sorrows. This concept of trust is so important to David that he uses this word ‘trust’ over 71 times in the many books of Psalms.

Psalm 18

   ¹I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.

   ²The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

   ³I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

   ⁴The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.

   ⁵The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.

   ⁶In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

   ⁷Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.

   ⁸There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

   ⁹He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.

   ¹⁰And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.

   ¹¹He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

   ¹²At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.

   ¹³The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.

   ¹⁴Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

   ¹⁵Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

   ¹⁶He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.

   ¹⁷He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.

   ¹⁸They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.

   ¹⁹He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

So many verses in the bible contain the word trust, or the phrase ‘trust the Lord’…Ruth, Job, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah….important books of the Old Testament…all use this word trust.  Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul, and John…all use this important word trust in many of the writings of the New Testament as well.

If God deemed this word so important, then why can’t I learn this important lesson? Well, one reason is that trust requires confidence! Those of us who have suffered the loss of a loved one have a hard time building this again. My world crashed suddenly around me…and I had just begun to trust again after the divorce…how could I possibly learn to trust again?

The answer is found is those same scriptures…call upon the name of the Lord…because…he delivered me…he delighted in me… he knoweth my needs…he cares for me much more than he does for my sweet wren. And not one moment is gained by worrying…I need to be more like my bird friend.  Everything I need is out there…waiting for me to collect it, and gently place it in my nest. There will I lay the tasks he has given me, and wait patiently, resting  till the day they hatch out and he requires a new work from me.  I just have to call out to him…to ask where to go next…and wait for him to answer.