Full stop or comma? - Hope 103.2

Full stop or comma?

By David ReayThursday 19 Sep 2013LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes

Transcript:

Read Jeremiah 17:7-8

7 “But blessed are those who trust in the LORD
      and have made the LORD their hope and confidence.
8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
      with roots that reach deep into the water.
   Such trees are not bothered by the heat
      or worried by long months of drought.
   Their leaves stay green,
      and they never stop producing fruit. (NLT)

We each have to end up trusting someone. Whether we sell a house,buy a car,seek financial advice,visit a doctor,we are invited to place our trust in someone or something. We hope they are trustworthy but we can never be absolutely sure.

Scriptures such as this invite us to trust in God. He can be relied upon in all seasons of life. Trust in God doesn’t remove the seasons of hardship,but allows us to keep on going in the midst of them. Whatever else changes,God is constant.

But most of us have lived long enough to know that life throws some tough things at us. We wonder if God really knows what he is doing. In such times,we need to recall just what it is we are trusting. Are we trusting God to give us a new job,heal our cancer,get our children into the best school. These seem reasonable enough and legitimate things to ask for.

However,there is a more basic,bottom-line sort of trust than this. It is trust ‘full stop’. It is trusting that God will do what is best and stick with us,full stop. It is not trust ‘comma’,whereby we trust God will do a certain specific thing.

Nothing at all wrong in asking God to do specific things,but the most basic trust doesn’t insist on it. He sometimes grants us our specific requests and sometimes does not. But he can always be relied upon to be with us and allow us to live fruitful lives no matter what external circumstances are like. Full stop.

Blessings
David Reay