Trusting in the Truth

Greetings my friends I hope this day finds you well, and in whatever is going on this verse will speak to you as it spoke to me. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."-Romans 15:13 Now before I go into this I will say again that I welcome and want to know what yall truly think about what is said in this blog, bad or good comments is no matter to me.

I was reading Psalm 18 this morning, and it is a great one written by King David after he had been delivered from King Saul who was out to kill him. The way he speaks and sings to God is amazing, listen to his heart cry out, "I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in who I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. The breakers of death rolled over me, and the torrents of oblivion made me afraid. The cords of Hell entangled me and the snares of death were set for me. I called upon the Lord in my distress and cried out to my God for help. He heard my voice from his heavenly dwelling; my cry of anguish came to his ears...The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!...Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O Lord; I will sing praises to your name."(1-6,46,&49). In all of this Psalm the message comes to me of a God that shows up, one who cares for his children (that's all of us) and not only hears our prayers but does something about them; most of the time his answer is yes, no, or wait but all of the time his answer is right on. Now verse 49 is mentioned in Romans 15:9, and that is how I got from the Old to the New Testament. Paul mentions this verse in talking about how faith is to be spread and it is spread when his children (that's us again) worship him in a manner that others want to join in. Now this doesn't have to be someone standing on the street corner preaching, though I do say if that's you my hat is off, but many times its noticing that somebody truly has something great going on and than wanting to know what it is. This is how I came to faith in the Lord, I noticed that my life was missing something and saw people who did than I asked them how to get what they got; in the process the Lord came to me and I have been brought to the foot of the Cross many times since for needed adjustments.

So I came to the verse I wrote of in the first paragraph, and the words hit me deep indeed. Again it is Romans 15:13, "May the God of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace as you Trust in him, so that you may overflow with Hope by the Power of the Holy Spirit." This time I capitalized the words that stick out to me: Hope, Joy, Peace, Trust, and Power. Let me put them in order: Out of Trusting God comes Joy and Peace, and his Power brings Hope to us which overflows to those who are hopeless. We live in a world full of pain and suffering, one that puts forth lies that are easy to believe in when things are hard because many times they seem true when they are not. Usually in these times we are somewhat out of it: tired, depressed, lonely, etc. We are all human and to fall for these is not bad but instead we need to see them as that, either we see it in ourselves or some other brother/sister/friend in Christ sees it for us and shows us what is really up. God's voice is one of truth, and he speaks to all of us in ways that we can understand; if we listen he will utter words that will be more powerful than any that has been heard by us on this Earth. Its still, its small but its real, and it will change your life as it changed mine and so many others. I live in near the Rocky Mountains, and as I looked at them yesterday as the sun was raising it was as if the Lord was showin' off a little bit; like he was saying, "Check it out, I made this and made it good just as I made you even better than anything else. My love for you is grander than these peaks, and more beautiful than these colors of sunrise is what I've done/what I am doing."

Jeremy Camp's song "There Will Be a Day" speaks to much of this, but one verse for sure does more than others, "Troubled soul don’t lose your heart, Cause joy and peace he brings. And the beauty that’s in store, Outweighs the hurt of life’s sting." So I say to all that we need to grab on to the truth of Christ (even if all we can do in our own strength is with our pinkie toe), trust that he will do what is right in all that he does and we need but follow his lead. As I've said to some but now to all, "BEE LEE DAT YO!!!"
much love and peace,
WP