03/06/2024
After studying Trust and how it is such an integral part of prayer, did we finally conclude that it is indeed a simple concept? So often we take something that should be viewed, and taken, as being quite simple, and by attempting to dissect and intellectually define it we transform it into something quite difficult, complex and hard to achieve. However, the Holy Spirit, and our soul, takes us where our intellect cannot, and they can reveal the simplest truth at the heart of the most overwhelmingly complicated things… such as “what is trust?”
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV
Pastor E.M. Bounds wrote that trust in God is "the product of His work, His power, and His person." He goes on to say "Trust is too simple for verbal definition. It is too sincere and spontaneous for theological terms."
What amazes me the most is that despite all our efforts to make our relationship with God complex through dogma and elitism… it is not. Defining such simple and ingrained feelings as love, faith, and trust have over complicated what each of us experiences naturally. God never requires us to define these things... he just wants us to share with Him in living them and feeling them.
I dare say that few marriages would get off the ground if beforehand the husband and wife had to define these three simple feelings they shared (love, faith, and trust). Through the centuries, poets have tried to define I words the love we feel for another and yet always fall short. The closest they have come is in conveying once again the feeling in the emotion of the love that they have struggled to define.
So when we attempt to catalog these three simple experiences; love, faith, and trust, and determine how they impact our prayers and relationship with God, how is it possible to succeed in capturing these infinite concepts in a few finite words and phrases? Listen as Elizabeth Barrett Browning attempts to do this with just one of them, love. Yet, as she does so it all comes back to her soul, faith, grace, and concludes in the final sentence with how it makes her feel, and what God chooses to show us.
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806 - 1861
Courtesy of poets.org
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Prayer is our participation in the breathing of God, it is the upturned corners of our smiles, the warmth of joy, and pain in a tear, and when all the words have failed us we realize it is quite simply the eternal summation of our life. So are we busy defining prayer and all the love, trust, faith, grace, joy, and other things it contains, or are we immersing ourselves in the breath of God as the Spirit directs us to do and feel these things?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for lifting the burden of understanding from us, and allowing us to turn to your Holy Spirit when we are perplexed and unable to answer even the simplest questions regarding your Word. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who prays for us when we are at a loss, and brings you and your Word to our remembrance when we are wandering in our own forgetfulness. Praised be your name for sending your Son Jesus to redeem us with His blood, and who saved us in ways that seem so hard to define, but so easy to grasp when we simply say “I Believe” Help us Lord to turn away from our own attempts at understanding and breathe in yours. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who simplifies all of creation for us, and allows us to lean on you, and trust in you always. Your ways are a mystery to us, and yet we understand them perfectly when we turn to you, and breathe in and out from your never ending reservoir of life, and wisdom. We know love by a simple kiss, wisdom in a word from you, joy as we behold you, trust as we step out without fear. You give us every complex characteristic of life and creation in such a simple manner, and all we must do is breathe in and out in prayer, believe, and trust enough to lean on you. Teach us the simple innocence of Eden, the Holiness of your Word, and the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. Show us their simplicity, and lead us ever deeper into them. Praised be your name for every glimmer of wisdom and understanding you impart to us, and help us to use it to glorify you always. Amen
“While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.””
Mark 5:35-36 ESV
Rich Forbes