Trust In The Lord And Do Good

Do not fret because of evildoers, Be not envious toward wrongdoers.For they will wither quickly like the grass And fade like the green herb.Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday.Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.PSALMS 37:1-11 NASB

I find that I carry such affection for this set of verses. Psalm 37 is my go to for when I am struggling with worry and fear. I like how practical it is. Many of the other Psalms are clear about where to take our fretting but this one outlines what to do with it.

Clear steps, reminders that it's what we DO when upset and not how we feel that matters. "Trust in the Lord and DO good. Dwell in the land ( no running away from it) and cultivate faithfulness. It says that He Will Do It. Cease from anger and forsake wrath, do not fret, trust, delight, and commit myself to Him. All those are actions intended to replace the destructive emotions that if left in the drivers seat will shipwreck my calm and as the Psalm says: "leads only to evildoing".

The enemy camps out here and whispers that it looks like it's just giving up and not doing anything about the injustice. The enemy would not have us look very closely at the self control and faithfulness that is required to trust in God to do what he says he'll do in his own timing.

For those who are accustomed to letting desire be in the drivers seat... this act of trust and faith is incomprehensible. There is no satisfaction for the anger, no promise of vindication in this life to balm the wound that our flesh can't think around. Our flesh does not think. It cannot accept faith in what it can't feel... it can only feel and consume.

I believe the steps outlined here in this Psalm are the baby steps that outline what faith is; the "how to". Do you want to know what it means to walk by faith and keep step in the spirit? Here is where you start. It begins when you are worried, in fear, desperately angry... any strong emotion that wants in the driver seat of your life. Throttle that feeling and submit it to God by replacing it with what Doing Good looks like. It's not the "giving up" lie that the enemy tells you it is. Rather, it's cultivating faithfulness, an active self control that looks to a Savior to do the job of saving. It's getting into the habit of demonstrating to your flesh through study, prayer, fasting and meditation that it does not get to drive the bus. Your hungers and desires, your thirsts and drives are not going to control how you respond and behave.

Trust in the Lord and Do Good sounds so poetic... until you realize how much of a fight you are in for.  Your emotional flesh wants to be satisfied.

Lord, help me dig out the enemy camps in my life, ground I've surrendered by believing the lie that waiting on the Lord was giving up. Help me to look at my self delusions square on and reclaim your truth from the lie I bought.

Amen