Help me trust You, my trustworthy God

It’s so easy for me to forget God’s trustworthy hold on me as I suffer. It’s so easy to forget my trustworthy Lord when I focus on the pain I’m enduring. My troubles scream loud and I quickly fixate on them, spiral into desperate fix-it mode, or helpless despair about what might happen. 

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge (Is. 17:10-11 ESV). 

More and more, I’m discovering that my self-focused fears show my lack of trust in that moment. I write a lot about “thought replacement,” because intentionally filling my heart with thoughts of the Lord brings awe, worship, reverence, rest. It’s God’s settling my own lack of trust and my fear, with His personalized “fear of the Lord.” How I need His help, every moment!

Fear of the Lord is not a “scared-of-God’s-wrath” fear. No, my deserved punishment for all of my sin was borne entirely by Jesus Christ at the cross. Hallelujah! This fear is a rightfully humbled re-knowing that God can be entirely trusted with what I’m dealing with. 

How can I remember? I need to replace my thoughts with Scripture, because God’s Word tells us what is true about who God is and what He will do! So, let’s remember together, while singing an old hymn that reminds us that this is what we all need. Across all generations of people who inevitably suffer, we walk in an ongoing battle of trust. I love these old lyrics…what good is this doing us?!

What can these anxious cares avail thee,
these never-ceasing moans and sighs?
What can it help, if thou bewail thee
o’er each dark moment as it flies?
Our cross and trials do but press
the heavier for our bitterness.

(“If thou but suffer God to guide thee,” Neumark, G., 1641, trans. C. Winkworth, 1855/1863)

This old hymn reminds me that, for God’s people across time, His Word was sustaining. His Word even sustained the One who IS the Word made flesh. Jesus Christ fought this world’s suffering battles with Scripture…and so must we. Let’s cast all our anxieties on Him because He cares for us (1 Pet. 5:7). Let’s replace our anxious thoughts with trust in our trustworthy God, by remembering some of what His Word tells us.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever (Is. 40:8 ESV).

Trusting God’s trustworthy promises, revealed in Scripture

If thou but suffer God to guide thee,
and hope in him through all thy ways,

For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes (Rev. 7:17 ESV).

he’ll give thee strength, whate’er betide thee,
and bear thee through the evil days:

Who trusts in God’s unchanging love
builds on the Rock that naught can move.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39 ESV).

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold (Ps. 18:2 ESV).

Only be still, and wait his leisure
in cheerful hope, with heart content
to take whate’er thy Father’s pleasure
and all deserving love hath sent;
nor doubt our inmost wants are known
to him who chose us for his own.

[Jesus says,] “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23 ESV, emphasis added).

Trusting God’s trustworthy power and authority, revealed in Scripture

All are alike before the Highest;
’tis easy to our God, we know,

But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God (Lk. 22:69 ESV). 

to raise thee up though low thou liest,
to make the rich man poor and low;
true wonders still by him are wrought
who setteth up and brings to naught.

For [in Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority (Col. 2:9-10 ESV).

Praising our trustworthy God for His whole character, revealed in Scripture

Sing, pray, and keep his ways unswerving,
so do thine own part faithfully,

But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one (2 Thess. 3:3 ESV).

and trust his Word – though undeserving,
thou yet shalt find it true for thee;

All his precepts are trustworthy (Ps. 111:7 ESV).

Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him (Prov. 30:5 ESV).

God never yet forsook at need
the soul that trusted him indeed.

Material adapted from Near to God: A Devotional Bible Study of God’s Character in Our Suffering, Lauri A. Hogle. Copyright © 2022, Singing Christ’s Hope. 

A playlist to sing-pray, “Help me trust You, my trustworthy God”

The battle rages, doesn’t it? As we suffer, we pray as Jesus taught us, “Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.” This is “fearing the Lord” as we trust Him…with everything.

This week, we’re praising our trustworthy God, remembering all He’s done for us in Christ and continues to do, every moment. As we praise Him, we’re praying that He will help us to trust Him with every moment.

In the singing itself, we are doing battle…and He will win the battle! It’s all in the sanctifying care and power of our mighty and faithful God, our trustworthy God, who has revealed Himself to us in His Word. 

If you’d like my battling YouTube playlist with lyrics to sing into your own suffering, just sign up here and I’ll send it to your email as we together ask the Lord to help us trust Him, with all love and prayer as we walk this suffering journey together.

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