Day 5 of 21: To Know Him, is to Trust Him

To Know Him, is to Trust Him

Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you. (Psalm 9:10) 

know  

/nō/

Those who know your name, that is to say, all those who are intimately acquainted with God. Who are affectionately acquainted with His attributes. His love, grace, mercy, faithfulness, kindness. His ability to heal, to provide, to bring peace, to bring joy, to minister, to speak. The All Sufficient God who is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble (Psalm 46:1-2) To know Him by name is to be intimately acquainted with Him through His Word and to spend a significant amount of time and effort with Him through the fellowship of prayer. The name of God, essentially, the names of God, denote the very character of God. Therefore, to proclaim that we know your name is to proclaim that we have an understanding of who God is and are intimately acquainted with His character.

trust  

/trəst/

Trust. The Meriam-Webster dictionary defines trust as assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something, confidence, dependence, reliance. Trust is the giving up of self-reliance, that one might place his confidence in God.  To trust God means one must understand the very character of God in order that he might confide in Him.  The more intimate our knowledge of God, the more entirely shall we trust in Him.  The more willing we are to walk with Him, unafraid, into those places where we will be in trouble if He does not come through. The more that we know of His character, the more that we fall in love with Him, and thus trust Him. Therefore, a lack of trust in God denotes a lack of understanding of His character and a lack of love for who He is.

 

nev·er  

/ˈnevər/

Never forsaken. Men forsake God, but God has never and will never forsake man. This is said with an understanding that there is absolutely no doubt in the heart of a man that truly trusts in God. There is no doubt of ever being left, or tricked, or lost. God has proven Himself. His very character speaks to this proof, that He is a doubtless God. One in whom we can place full confidence. The writer of this psalm, King David, is laying claim to the fact that God was His banner in the best and the worst of times, and therefore, He had full confidence in His character. He had full confidence in His faithfulness. He had full confidence that under no circumstance would God ever forsake Him. To have this understanding is to understand the very character of God and therefore to trust in Him.

seek  

/sēk/

Those who seek you. The ability to fully trust in God, to know His very character, and therefore, to understand that He will never forsake you, nor leave you, is something that man cannot attain without great effort. A man who seeks after God is a man who commits himself to the reading and studying of God's Word and to fellowship with Him through prayer, habitually and continually. A man who seeks after God will find Him and will yearn to put his quiet confidence in Him. Trust and confidence is something that naturally comes with the understanding of God's character. It is a natural reaction to the God who is from eternity to eternity. The God who is the God of All the Ages. The God who has shown Himself, throughout history, to be a God who never fails. In order for a man to seek after God requires that we are first sought out by God, an effectual calling from the Creator of the Universe. This calling is under the influence and direction of his grace, through His Spirit, and is not something that can be done apart from His leading. We seek Him, because He first sought us. 

“But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through.” 

 Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God  

I am in a place where there is no place to turn, but up. I have asked for this in my pursuit of absolute surrender to God and yet, I am here, and I find myself fearful. I am fearful of the unknown and being in that place where I will not know what to do, what to think, or how to continually praise Him if He does not come in response to what I have been lamenting over. It is not that I need the Lord to answer according to my will, but it is  that I am afraid He will not answer at all. I fear that darkness will triumph and that God will be nowhere to be found. The tumultuous tribulation I find myself and my family in the midst of has almost been too much to bear. It is not for lack of comfort that I find myself perplexed, but more so, because of the darkness that I see seemingly triumphing. The darkness that I see shutting out the light and causing even the Godliest of men to grow angry and faulter. I am in the midst of that place where I will be "in trouble if He does not come through". My prayer is that I can stand humbly on my knees, with boldness and fearlessness, unafraid, with all faith and trust, so that I too can proclaim like the Psalmist, because I seek you and know your name, I trust that you will not forsake me.

.:La Chula:.