February 19 – Naked Faith (Psalm 40:1-5)

“Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust.”
(Psalm 40:4)

IN WORD:
Those of us who claim a relationship with God have placed our trust in Him. But when it comes to daily living, we tend to trust a lot of other sources of help as well. Few of us have learned to trust the Lord alone. We usually trust the Lord and: financial resources, medical research, counselor’s advice, popular opinion, or any number of other avenues of assistance. None of these in themselves are necessarily false helps. The issue is our heart attitude of trust. Do we know in our hearts where our help really comes from? It comes from God.

David claims that the person who makes the Lord his trust will be “blessed’ — utterly happy, spiritually prosperous, envied, and honored. God’s “shalom” — His peace and wellness — will be upon him. The picture is of someone who has forsaken all confidence in other things and cast himself without hesitation or reservation — even recklessly — on God. It is a naked faith, with no human props to fall back on. It is a spiritual placing of all eggs in one basket.
This kind of trust requires a certain amount of courage. It hangs everything on an invisible God. It does not hedge its bets but believes that God, as He is revealed in His Word, will act toward us as we have been told He will. But in the end, it is the safest trust there is. God has never failed anyone who has invested all hopes in Him.

IN DEED:
How pure is your trust? Are you using God to fill in the gaps around your other sources of help? Do you have a plan B if God doesn’t intervene the way you want Him to? If so, do not expect the blessedness of being abandoned to Him. That only comes with a pure, unbridled faith in God alone. No false idols, no confidence in the flesh, no backup plans, no pride. Make the Lord your exclusive trust, and expect to be blessed.

“A little faith will bring your soul to heaven, but a lot of faith will bring heaven to your soul.” -D. L. Moody-