Psalm 25:1-5

1 O Lord, I give my life to you. 2 I trust in you, my God! Do not let me be disgraced, or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat. 3 No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced, but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others. 4 Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. 5 Guide me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.

The Journey of Faith is not a religious experience for the elite, but an open invitation for everyone to trust God. For those willing to trust Him faith becomes the foundation on which our lives are built as we travel down the road He reveals. But faith is only as good as its object; if we trust people, we get what people can do; if we trust money, we get what money can do. When we trust ourselves, we get what we can do and no more, but when we trust God, we get what God can do, and what can’t He do?

David chooses to put his faith and trust in God instead of people, he starts by saying “O Lord, I give my life to you, I trust in you, my God” Who or what we trust is a choice and even with his enemies after him and the pressure mounting, David’s trust is not in others, wealth or even himself. His prayer is a confession of choice not a plea of desperation because David’s decision is to trust God to guide his life. Many times we turn to God in times of crisis because we feel like we have no other choice and we have exhausted all other channels but that is not the heart of trust. At the heart of trust there is a choice that willfully submits control. Trusting God is not just believing that He has a plan but trusting Him to guide and direct us in that plan. There are many scriptures that make it clear that God wants to guide us in a relationship with Himself by helping us to live the lives He has called us to. He hasn’t called us into a relationship with Himself only to leave us in the dark about how that relationship should unfold. Proverbs 3:6 “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”

James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

Isaiah 58:11 “The Lord will guide you always.”  Isaiah goes on to describes life without God as being like living in a desert, in a “sun-scorched land”, but says that God’s guidance of His people means that they “will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”

There are many choices in the confusing twists and turns on the road of life but David understood that only a choice for God’s truth would clearly guide him. What will you choose; will you ask God to show you the right path? When he points out the road for you to follow will you trust in His direction? Because choosing to give our lives to God means submitting to and accepting His guidance. Guidance is a difficult word in our culture and rarely do we ever want to admit that we really need it because our fallen nature is in opposition to being guided. We are ok with a guide in extreme situations like a guide when in a foreign country or a guide dog for the blind. Yet for many we fail to see the gravity and the need for guidance as we embark on the journey of faith. There is a saying that a picture paints a thousand words but sometimes a word paints for us its own picture. As you take a closer look at the word “guidance” you will see the word “dance” at the end. Here is where the picture comes alive because God’s guidance in our lives is a lot like dancing. When 2 people try to lead it never works because the movement doesn’t flow with the music. Not only does everything become mechanical and uncomfortable but it also becomes painful when toes start getting stepped on. At this point we feel like it’s just easier to pull away from God, to stop embracing His guiding hand and walk away. Yet when one person releases without letting go and lets the other lead both begin to flow to the music. Guidance requires one giving subtle and gentle cues, a nudge or a little pressure lightly leaning in one direction or another. Instead of fighting for control the two become one, moving beautifully and almost effortlessly.  Dancing requires surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other. The word GUIDANCE ends with the word dance but it starts with the letter G for God and is followed closely by “u” and “i.” “God, “u” and “i” dance, Are you willing to let God lead? This is the heart of David’s prayer request in Psalm 25:4, for he is not just asking for God to point out which road to take so he can be on his way, his desire is to walk it with God. David’s statement of “I give my life to you” is a choice to do life with God to move according to His direction. What will be your choice, will you do life in motion with God?  When I was a little kid I loved pretending to drive my dad’s parked car and when you steer a parked car you don’t have to worry about which direction your heading because you are not really going anywhere. As I got older I realized that this life isn’t pretend, the truth is that we are all in motion and without His direction it’s just a matter of time before we wreck.

In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Those are not just words to parrot, they describe an attitude of the heart out of which we are to pray. We pray not to try and coerce God into conforming to our will but choosing to submit ourselves to His will because we trust He knows what is best for us. Following requires a willingness to trust His leading and fix our eyes on Him as He gently guides. He is the one who wrote the music and planned each step of the dance so He not only knows what He is doing but also where we are going. What about you are you ready to trust Him and let him guide you in the dance of faith?

Psalm 40:1-4

1 I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. 3 He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord. 4 Oh, the joys of those who trust the Lord,     who have no confidence in the proud or in those who worship idols.

As we continue with Part II of “Trust in the Wait” we will see again from Psalm 40 that God wants to move us from the pits of despair to the pinnacle of praise, from pouting to a higher perspective. Trust is always more of a challenge while we are waiting on God but trusting in the wait means:

• Praising

Trust in His provision means we can praise Him in the pit. We can praise God for His problem solving abilities because He always finds a way even when there seems to be no way.  He has the ability to help overcome any problem you may be facing with His wisdom, knowledge and resources. Even though He often works in ways we cannot see He will find a way for you out of your predicament, problem or pit.

The psalmist said “He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God”. God wants to put a new song on our lips, a songs of deliverance that comes out of the pit of despair. God created us to sing. Nations have national anthems; armed forces march to music, colleges have alma-maters. Almost every organization you can think of has a theme song, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts. We even sing in the shower, we whistle while we work, at times we even find ourselves pausing along the way to hear a bird chirping in the trees. We, by our nature, love singing, even if we ourselves sound terrible. In the Bible we find the God of Creation and Redemption is the God of Song, for when the universe was brought into existence, Job 38 says “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? ..as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? In Exodus 15 when God delivered the Children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, the Israelites sang “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him” One day when this world is over and God’s plan of redemption has reached its consummation, we will all be gathered before Him sing the song of the Lamb. Singing gives evidence of life, and praising God gives evidence of our trust in Him with our life. It’s one thing to say “I know He’ll get me through”, but it’s another thing to praise Him while considering the possibility of having a car repossessed, or running out of food, or seeing a child go to jail, or watching a spouse wither away with disease. The question is not will we praise Him it is when will we praise Him. The words from the song “I will praise you in the Storm” by Casting Crowns provide us with a call and a challenge not to wait till we see the blue skies to praise Him: “I was sure by now, God You would have reached down, And wiped our tears away, Stepped in and saved the day, But once again, I say “Amen”, and it’s still raining” Do you trust Him enough to praise Him in the pit?

•             Perspective

Our perspective in the pit reveals our real trust in God. Sometimes the Lord uses what traps us in the pit to show others His power through our experience of deliverance. He allowed Joseph to be thrown into a pit and then to be imprisoned in Egypt for 18 years. Yet, in Gen 50:20 Joseph wrote about his brothers, “You meant to throw me in the pit for evil, but God turned it for good for the saving of many lives.”  In the pit I am often tempted to think only of my own deliverance but the real question I need to wrestle with is will I allow the Lord to use my discouraging experience for His greater purposes, do I trust His plan, and will I wait for His demonstration of power? Whose perspective will you choose to view the problems of your pit through, His or yours? Why do we think that we have to be delivered instantly?  Are you willing to let God use you for His greater display of mighty power, perspective and problem solving capacities? As a result of our pit experiences we can gain a new perspective with greater understanding, wisdom and maturity. Someone once complained, “Satan is always after me. He’s always on my back. How can I defeat Satan in my life?” The answer they got was, “Submit to God. Come out the other end of your trial more like Jesus. That defeats Satan in your life”.  We often spend most of our time in the pit looking for deliverance but what if we looked for development. Have you ever notice that the times you’re not really serving and you feel least like you’re on the right path are when you’re stuck in the mire of a trial? It’s during these times when we are focused more on the circumstances of the trial than the creator that we often feel useless. What if while we are in the midst of a trial, we would concentrate on praying for others and seeking to meet their needs? When we do, it’s amazing how much less we focus on our own problem, but it’s impossible to do both. Picture yourself in a room with a window. If you’re standing with your back to the window looking at the room, you can’t see what’s outside. If you are looking out, you can’t see the room behind you.  Similarly while we’re focusing inward, we can’t see other’s needs, but while we’re looking outward, it gives God the chance to clean the room behind us and even move some of the furniture around.

•             Path

Verse 2 says “He steadied me as I walked along” God’s activity in our lives is not just about deliverance, “lifting us out of the pit of despair” it is also about Direction. God’s plan is to put us back on solid ground regarding our faith, and guide our steps forward and onward in our daily walk. There is no greater sense of victory for those who has experienced a time of testing and with spiritual discernment as they looked back have come to knows that it was God that delivered them out of it. The deeper and darker the pit, the brighter the light of delivery, the thicker the mire, the greater the sense of release.  Without the unsteady muck and mud do we really appreciate the solid ground that God provides? Without the pits of this life will we ever understand the true joy of God’s path? It’s out of our pit experiences that we not only gain an appreciation for God’s path but also a renewed sense of purpose.  If we learn anything from the pit it’s the pleasure of His path that is filled with direction and purpose. What direction are you heading, what will be your destination, do you want to live a life filled with significance? Then trust His path.

George Macdonald once said “How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.” Sometimes our pits are the only road to His path of purpose, whose plan are you trusting in?