Trust and Obey
From the Pastor’s Desk
July 21, 2024
To walk by faith is to believe what the Lord says more than we believe our eyes, thoughts, and feelings. To walk by faith is trust the Lord’s love and wisdom. To walk by faith is to hand him the reins of our lives and to be guided by his word alone. Faith “receives the love of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:10).
In his word, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, the Lord tells us his point of view. Yes, we have our own points of view, but they are flawed and fallible. We must be governed by the Lord’s point of view. This is not a simplistic, easy philosophy. To gain God’s point of view, even revealed at a creaturely level, requires prayerful study, careful thought, many counselors, constant repentance, and humility. We must feel our utter inadequacy to guide ourselves and ask the Lord to teach us by his word. We must ask for the Holy Spirit to illumine our darkness through the word. This is the cry of every believing heart: “True to your word, O Lord, teach me.”
This was the cry of our Savior’s heart. We hear his cry when he condemned the scribes and Pharisees for replacing God’s word with their traditions. We hear his cry in the desert, when Satan tempted him: “Man lives by every word of God.” To live, truly live, is to live by the Lord’s word. His word gives us satisfying, empowering, purposeful life even in the dangerous, driest desert of affliction.
Like our Lord, faith lives by what God has said. It is to obey. Think of Abraham leaving his country and his idols behind at the command of God – or offering up Isaac when every earthly consideration screamed to oppose such a command. All the commands to walk by faith are commands to act in obedience to the word of God. We are not trusting and obeying God if we are disobeying him or trying to get his blessing on our terms – like Abraham seeking the seed of promise with Hagar. It was unbelief and disobedience to act in this way, even though he had Sarah’s blessing.
The Lord will test and refine faith. Our flesh, the old man of sin, fights faith. Remember: “when we would do good, we find another law, that evil is present with us” (Rom. 7:21). If you determine to walk by faith, expect the Lord to have you sacrifice your Isaac – whatever divides your affections and allegiances. He loves us and has bound himself to us in covenant. He wants all of us, and he knows that he is best for us. “You shall have no other gods before me” – not children, spouse, possession, self-image, fear, injustices, traditions, retirement. God is our portion, and when we walk by faith, he claims us, and we claim him, as our life.
To walk by faith, then, is to trust the Lord to do his work in us, without demanding to see the finished picture and when obedient faces obstacles. Are our children disobedient? Trust and obey the Lord even if disobedient children are temporarily displeased. Love your wife and cherish her even if she resists. Love and submit to your husband even he is hard. Faith place itself and all results into the Lord’s wise and faithful hands. Faith lives not on immediate results but on the manna of the Lord’s word.
He knows what is best. Do we doubt it? He is the One who loved and gave himself for me on the cross. He trusted and obeyed when it cost him everything. He trusted his Father and learned obedience. He has shown us the way to trust and obey. In his fellowship, faith feeds on his promises and grows. Faith becomes more satisfied with him, more contented with simple godliness. Nothing is more like our Lord Jesus than trusting and obeying our Father’s word when everything else is a battle. “Trust and obey. There is no other way to be happy in Jesus.” He will help us. He died and rose again to triumph over our unbelief. He reigns and intercedes over all to strengthen us to walk by faith, as he walked.
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