We continue our stroll through Psalm 25, allowing God to pace us as we sink in deep surrender to what He has prepared. Last week #ontheblog, we covered a single verse (v1):
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
We talked of not worshiping our habits but worshipping our God. Each day, we "lift up" our souls. "Lift up" means to point our desires toward, set our heart on, be greedy towards, or count on. Morning by morning, we lift up our souls to something or someone. It takes an intentional and obedient act to direct our desire to God Almighty.
How do we cultivate that obedient action in our lives? Verse 2 provides us with the key: trust.
O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies exult over me.
Trust is two-fold. When someone says, "I trust ________," it can mean they trust their character, or they trust their competence (and, in rare cases — both).
The beauty about God Almighty is that we can fully and completely trust His character and His competence, but it takes practice. This morning, my husband and I were reading Genesis 24 together. It stood out to me how Abraham's servant described the character and competence of God: steadfast love and faithfulness.
"Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master." Genesis 24:27
For the servant to adopt the mindset and "heartset" of God being steadfast in love and faithfulness, those descriptors must've been on Abraham's lips frequently for it to have imprinted in the mind and heart of this servant.
If you want to grow in your trust in the Lord, one way is to speak to yourself and to others about God's character. Then, as you verbalize your faith in Him, mold your life stories around His Biblical narrative, and speak aloud His Truth -- you, just like the servant, will begin to adopt a mindset and heartset toward the Lord.
The more your trust in God builds, the less you will believe the lies that your Enemy whispers to you. Unfortunately, the lies the Enemy whispers are often spoken in first-person form ("That was a stupid mistake I made. I am so ashamed of that decision and can't let anyone know."). Which, is why we must personalize scripture and make it individually relevant and applicable to us. Psalm 25 (as are many of the Psalms) is a great way to personalize scripture for yourself. Practice writing this verse down on an index card or post-it note and speaking it out loud over and over to yourself over the next week.
O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies exult over me.