Text: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6.
Good morning, Trusting
Christian ‘waiter! The wise advice and
counsel of other professing Christians is good to have; the direction of Pastors,
Teachers, and Evangelists is a blessing for any Christian ‘waiter’ to seek –
but God alone can be completely, and fully trusted in every direction in our
lives of service to the risen Christ Jesus.
Glory to His Holy Name!
Dictionary
Definition: Trust – (noun) worthiness of being relied on; fidelity; confidence
in the truth of anything; confident expectation; a resting on the integrity,
friendship, etc. of another; faith; hope; credit (especially sale on credit, or
on promise to pay); ground of confidence; charge; responsibility; anything felt
to impose moral obligations… (The Chambers Dictionary, page 1783)
Those of us who aspire
to ‘wait’ upon the Lord, are not to be fully seen as Christians who are just
waiting about for their Lord and Master to return to this world from Heaven.
No. Our ‘waiting’ is focused on service
to King Jesus, as those who would take from the Bread of Life found in our KJV
Bibles – the Living Word of God – and share it out among all with whom we meet
daily and continually. We are called of
the Lord God to serve out His Word to all hearers we encounter.
“Preach the Word; be
instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
longsuffering and doctrine…watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the
work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” (2 Timothy 4: 1-5)
Before asking others to
put their heart’s trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we ourselves must, of course,
have placed our own full trust in Him! Others
will very quickly discern our hearts, whether we have put our own faith and
trust in Christ and will not listen to us for a moment if they perceive we are
playing the hypocrite, by failing to put our full trust in Christ
ourselves! Therefore, to be a legitimate
Christian ‘waiter’, one must be sanctified, set apart for service to the Lord,
nothing held back from serving Him.
“…I am the Lord your
God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am
Holy:…” (Leviticus 11:44)
As the Levites were in
the Old Testament times, so must all Christian ‘waiters’ be in this New
Testament time. As they were called to
be sanctified and holy, so must you and I seek to be set apart for service to
our Holy Lord God, in Christ Jesus.
“Wherefore gird up the
loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be
brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ (Christ’s Second Coming); as
obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in
your ignorance: but as He which hath called you in Holy, so be ye holy in all
manner of conversation (entire lifestyle); because it is written, Be ye holy;
for I am Holy.” (1 Peter 1:13-16)
If you and I, as
professing Christians, have no zeal to be ‘like Christ’, we reveal ourselves as
hypocrites – and the world can tell a hypocrite from a genuinely sanctified
Christian. Thus, we must continually
trust in God to grant us the power of His Spirit, if we are to be strong
against the power of our own fallen human nature. Without Christ, we can do nothing good or
profitable in the service of the Living Lord God Jehovah.
“I am the Vine, ye are
the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him/her, the same bringeth forth
much fruit: for without Me (Jesus Christ) ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
“They trust no God at
all who trust Him not alone. He that stands with one foot on a rock and
another upon quicksand will sink and perish as certainly as he that standeth
with both feet upon a quicksand.” (John
Trapp 1601-1699)
To more fully trust the
Lord is to pray fervently to Him in humble worship and praise of Him, and to
pray with the full expectation of receiving from His hand our prayed
petition. ‘Waiting’ upon the Lord God is
not a light or fickly thing – it requires much strength, God-given, if we are
to endeavour to persevere in constant service to Christ and, by His grace and
Divine power, to the hearts and souls of others yet outside of His Body, the
church, and indeed, those who are in need within it.
Verse 7. “In
God is my Salvation and my glory. Once we were blind, now we are blessed with
Spiritual sight; once we were lost, now we are found, redeemed by Christ’s
sinless Blood, and set on the narrow path to Heaven – and all because of God’s
free and Sovereign grace to Hell-deserving sinners. Our only Salvation glory is found in Him.
Praise His Name!
“Neither is there
Salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among
men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts
4:12)
Verse 7. “In
God is my Salvation and my glory. Wherein
should we glory but in Him Who saves us?
Our honour may well be left with Him who secures our souls. To find all in God and to glory that it is so
is one of the sure marks of an enlightened soul.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 271)
Christian ‘waiters’ are
necessarily called to be Christian ‘soldiers’ – for many Spiritual battles are
fought against the world, the flesh, and that old Devil as we ‘wait’ upon the
souls of fallen men/women.
“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath called him to be a soldier.” (2 Timothy 2:3-4)
We go to do Spiritual
war carrying the Name of King Jesus Christ, on the shields of our faith.
“On the shields of the
Greeks, Neptune was depicted; on the shields of the Trojans, Minerva; because
in them they put their confidence, and in their protection deemed themselves
secure. Now, Christ is the insignia of
our shields.” (Thomas Le Blanc 1869)
“Wherefore God also hath
highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name: that at the
Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth,
and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
The way of the Cross of
Christ can be a hard road to travel, when one is seeking to serve Christ in
full commitment of service as a ‘waiter’ in the Word. Full trust in Him is a must.
Verse 8.
“Trust in Him at all times. Faith
is an abiding duty, a perpetual privilege.
We should trust when we can see as well as when we are utterly in the
dark.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of
David, page 271)
Thought: Trust Christ the Lord at all times – good and
bad – He will never fail us.
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