IN GOD WE TRUST--OR DO WE?

My trust in God and His purpose for my life has been challenged! In my journey through the valley of cancer over the last six months, I have sometimes questioned and even doubted my faith and trust in my Father.

When the doctors told me that I had a malignant growth on my neck and throat, I was faced with the frailness of my own humanity, and my trust in the Lord was about to be assaulted. In the first weeks as I was grappling with the prognosis of the cancer and deciding how to proceed, some of Job’s comforters came to say hello. One of Job’s friends suggested that perhaps I wasn’t walking in faith because if I really had faith, there was no way I wouldn’t be healed; another informed me that some people just don’t want to be healed.

Not long after the comforters’ visits, I was on the phone with an old friend, a very strong man of God. We talked about the illness I was going through and he had some very kind words of encouragement. As we were finishing the conversation, he said, “You can trust Him, David. You can trust His promises, all of them.” My friend didn’t know, except by the Holy Spirit, some of the ways my faith and trust were being challenged but his words were right to the point and were a tremendous encouragement to me.

I am learning to walk at a more solid level of trust than ever before. Believe me, I have a long way to go but I’m growing in my trust in Him. The bright side of a challenge is that it will drive you to seek the Lord; the dark side of a challenge is that you will allow it to distance you from God and His purposes in your life.

In Job, which, frankly, is not one of my favorite books of the Bible, the author says in response to his comforters, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (13:15). How could Job say that? Could I say that? How can anyone say, “God, if You kill me, I will still trust You”?

The Hebrew word for trust used in Job 13:15 means to wait, to tarry in expectation, to steadfastly expect. The first place this Hebrew word is used in Scripture is in Genesis 8:10: “Noah waited,” meaning he trusted and unwaveringly expected to see God’s mercy, His salvation, His rescue. Noah’s ark was floating on top of the greatest deluge the world had ever seen and there was no land in sight, yet he steadfastly expected that God would rescue him…and God did!

The rock-solid trust that Job and Noah displayed was also expressed by Daniel’s friends when they were given the choice of bowing down to Nebuchadnezzar’s image or being thrown into a fiery furnace (Daniel 3). Daniel’s friends responded, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18 NIV). Now that’s trust!

I am most vulnerable to moments of despair and lack of trust when I am tired both physically and emotionally. Add sickness and pain to that and you have a wide-open entrance point for doubt and fear. It is at those moments that I have chosen to trust Him and to express it through worship.

How do you worship when it seems that hell is breaking loose all around and the circumstances you are facing are just overwhelming? In my experience, very simply, I would begin to thank and praise Him for saving me, for the wonderful family and friends that I have, for the countless times He has blessed me, for His love, for His Word, for His promises. I thanked Him for every blessing of my life that I could think of.

As I would, by faith, worship and praise Him, I would often sense His nearness, and the darkness and confusion of anxiety, doubt and fear would begin to dissipate. Faith and trust please the Lord and He inhabits the praises of His people.

Why worship at a time like this? Because true worship is an expression of trust and faith. Worship is a faith declaration that God is sovereign, that Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life, the Lord over my circumstances—and I trust Him! Hebrews 11: 21 says, “By faith Jacob, when he was dying…worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.” The last act of this dying man was to show his trust and confidence in His God through worship. I believe Jacob remembered that most of his encounters with the Lord had come when he was in worship and his desire was to leave this life worshiping—in the Lord’s presence!

Worshiping people are trusting people. When we praise and worship Him, we are enthroning Him as the lord/king of our life. Because worship is our choice, we are declaring that His rule is supreme in our life!