Trust God

Philippians 4:4 has been put to music.  Perhaps you know the song:

But this is the beginning of some instructions with promises attached to them.

See the instruction?  "Careful" is old English for "anxious".  So we are to be anxious for nothing.  But God doesn't leave us there.  He not only tells us what not to do; He tells us what to do instead.

Prayer is asking and supplication is also asking.  God wants us to ask Him, not everyone else, and He wants us to ask Him with thanksgiving.  And there's a promise with that.

So when you, instead of being anxious about something, ask God for help and thank Him for taking care of you, the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.

Notice it's the peace of God, not the peace that comes from anything in the world.  And notice it says the peace of God "shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."  Your heart and your mind shall be peaceful because the peace of God shall keep them.

Do you need to understand that peace and how it's going to keep your heart and mind - especially when you're really worried because the situation is so very dire?  No.  In fact, you can't understand it because it says the peace of God passes all understanding.  But you will be peaceful.

So God has told us what not to do, what to do instead, and what promise we'll get when we do what He told us to do.

The next verses are also instructions with a promise.

So we are to think about things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report.  We're to think about things that have virtue, things that are worthy of praise.  Then it tells us to do the things that we've learned and received and heard and seen in this man of God.  And if we do that, the God of peace shall be with us.

So again we have the instruction and the promise.  But notice the promises are almost the same.

Now look at 1 Peter.

Most people try to exalt themselves - give themselves a higher position or make themselves look better.  But if you humble yourself under God's hand, I guarantee He will exalt you one day and that will be far better than you could ever exalt yourself!

But notice it says we are to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.  We are not told to humble ourselves under everyone on the street, or under the doctrines and philosophies of men or the people who promote them.  And we're certainly not told to humble ourselves under those who would harm us or the unbelievers who try to tell us how to be a Christian.  ("If you were a Christian, you wouldn't do such and such.")

We are to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.  And in humbling ourselves, we are to cast all our care on Him because He cares for us.

God has not given us the spirit of fear (which is what worry and anxiety really are).  God has given us power and love and sound minds.  That's why we can cast all our care on Him; that's why we can be anxious for nothing; that's why we can think things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report - things that have virtue and praise; and that's why we can do what we've learned and heard and received and seen in the man of God. Then the peace of God shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus and the God of peace shall certainly be with us and God will exalt us in due time.

There's a passage in Jeremiah that makes this very plain:

Notice it says, "Thus saith the Lord."  These are not man's words; they're God's Words.

But what does it mean to make flesh your arm?  Well, the arm God's talking about here is not the thing attached to your shoulder; it's your weapon.  When you carry a weapon, you're said to be armed.  A pistol is a side arm.  To make flesh your arm or your weapon is to trust in man to take care of you - to fight your battles for you, so to speak.

If you trust in some man, or woman, or group of men or women, or even yourself to take care of you, you've made those people your weapon and notice it says your heart has departed from the Lord because you should have been trusting Him, not them.  This is the figure of speech where three things are said, but one thing is meant.  "Trusteth in man", "maketh flesh his arm", and "heart departeth from the Lord" are all the same thing.  And notice God says this man is cursed!

Verse 6 says more about it.

Do you know what a heath is?  I didn't either, so I looked it up.

I can see this little juniper tree, all gnarled and twisted, growing out of the side of a rocky cliff, no soil to grow in, only rock.  It gets almost no water and it's in the hottest part of the desert.  Nothing can even get to it except the goats on a tiny ledge and they eat the few little leaves it has.  And nothing else grows around it, because the verse says it's in a salt land.

Have you ever seen the Utah salt flats?  There's nothing but salt for miles and miles!  And about every hundred yards or so, there's a scrawny, little plant that's pushed its way up through the salt.

This heath is in such dire straits it can't even see when good comes!  People who trust in man, even in themselves, are just like that.

You know those people!  Things are always going wrong for them.  And they're full of fear and always complaining about everything.  They can't even see when good comes.  They wouldn't recognize a good thing if it walked right up and bit them on the nose!  If they won a million dollars, they'd worry about how they were going to pay the taxes on it!  That's the curse.  They can't even see when good comes!

But, look at the next verse.

I've seen those trees.  There's a river that flows from Mt. San Jacinto into the Palm Springs area.  They say there are seven waterfalls on that river.  I've been to the bottom two.

In August at midnight it's still 100 degrees in Palm Springs!  If you park just off Highway 111 and walk to the river, you'll see that, even though the river is there, 20 feet from the bank it's desert - dry and parched and hardly anything grows there.

But if you walk upstream, eventually you'll get to a waterfall.  The water falls and makes a pool and the spray goes up.  There are trees all around the pool, close together, with their branches covering the pool like a canopy, holding the spray in.  When you walk into that room, it's like walking into air conditioning!  It must be easily twenty degrees cooler in there!

Those trees don't even see when heat comes!  Their leaves are always green.  They don't even know what a drought is!  Yet twenty feet away it's desert!

You'll be like those trees when you trust God for everything in your life!

See that?  Don't worry about them or envy them because they're going to be cut down.

This is written to Israel but it's still true.  If you trust in the Lord and do good, you won't be cut down; you'll live and be fed.

He's going to give you the desires of your heart.  He's going to bring it to pass.  You don't have to do it!

You can't bring forth your own righteousness, but God will bring forth both your righteousness and your judgment.  And it doesn't matter how old you are or how smart you are.  God will do it for you!

Just rest in the Lord and don't get upset when other people seem to prosper even though they're wicked.

One day the wicked won't exist.  We'll look for his place and it won't exist; there won't even be a trace of him!

Jesus Christ taught this in the sermon on the mount.

Yes, evil people plot against us.  The devil is always trying to kill God's people.  But you know what?

And we can laugh at them, too, not only because we see that their day is coming, but because God takes care of us and protects us from them.  Their attacks are nothing compared to the power of God!  Even if they kill us, God will raise us from the dead and we will live forever!

Yes, the wicked want to cast down the poor and needy, and kill those who are of upright conduct.  But look what's going to happen to them.

They're going to get killed with their own sword and their bows are going to be broken.  So don't worry about them.  God will take care of you!

True!

Their weapons will be broken but God will take care of you.

The upright have an inheritance that shall be forever!  This is written to Israel but the epistles tell us we, also, have an inheritance.  So I guess we'll have to live forever to enjoy it, won't we?

The righteous can give because they know Who supplies their need.

The Lord always upholds us!

Quite true!

"Judgment" here is "justice".  God will not forsake His saints, which are us in this Age of Grace.

See that?  None of our steps shall slide - not even one!

God's been protecting you your whole life.  That's why you haven't seen anyone trying to kill you lately.  And God will continue to protect you!  So trust Him!

God will exalt you.  And when the wicked are thrown into the lake of fire, you're going to see it!

Couldn't even find him.

Our end is peace.

Our salvation is from God.  He is our strength, not ourselves or anyone else!  Why does He deliver us?  Because we trust Him!  That's the key!

Now let's look at this in action.

Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah.  So these nations are actually attacking Judah.

We'll see how great a multitude this is later on.

When they fasted, they prayed to God.  Jehoshaphat went to God and told all the people to go to God, also.

Why didn't he "tighten security" at his airports and caravan assembly points?  Why didn't he pass a "Patriot Act" or set up temporary flight and camel restrictions?

Because he knew that nothing he could do would protect God's people from their enemies.  Remember?  Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm!  Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord!

See that?  The people followed Jehoshaphat's lead and went to God, also.

He led them in prayer.  (Wouldn't it be great if our President would lead our nation in prayer?)  And in his prayer, he reminds God - and himself - and the people - who God is and what He's done and what He's promised.

He tells God the problem.  Those three nations are coming to attack them!  And in the land that God gave them to inherit!

He asks for God's help.  (". . . let your requests be made known unto God.")  And he knows that he can't do anything about the situation, himself.  But he's trusting God.

They all stood before the Lord.  This was not something just the leaders did.  Nor even something just the men did.  All the people - old, young, wives, children - all were trusting God.  It doesn't matter how old or how young you are; you still have to trust God.

Now why him?  Because he's a Levite (the priest tribe).  And he's a descendant of Asaph, who wrote several of the psalms.  It doesn't say whether he was young or old.  It doesn't say whether he had any special position.

But he had to be someone who believed God.  You see, he's taking a real chance here.  What if the king doesn't like what God told him to say?  What if the priests disagree?

But God called him to deliver His message and Jahaziel did it with boldness, even though he was talking to the king!

Look at that!  The battle was not theirs, but God's!  Maybe some of your battles are really God's, too.

God told them exactly where to find these guys!  They couldn't have had better intelligence if they'd had a spy at the enemy's war council!

Wow!  Judah won't even have to fight in this battle!  That's going to be a miracle.  And it's not exactly the easiest thing in the world for them to believe, especially with so much on the line - unless they're trusting God.

Now let's see what the king does.

Look at that!  Jehoshaphat believed the Word of the Lord, even though he was the king and even though it came from this nobody Levite, Jahaziel!  Wouldn't it be great if our President did that!

But notice it says, "all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord".  They all believed the revelation, too!  Wouldn't it be great if our whole nation did that?

They got up early.  They didn't want to miss what God was going to do.  And the king reminded them to trust God.  He knew that was the key.

Singers?  Why didn't he appoint archers?  Why didn't he appoint swordsmen?  Because God told them they wouldn't have to fight in this battle and the king and the people believed God.  So, no need for swordsmen; let's appoint singers.

Now look at this.  When they began to sing, God set the ambushments.  So maybe Jehoshaphat appointed singers because God told him to.

But who ambushed those guys?  Judah?  I thought they only had singers.  What did they do, sing off key?

Wait a minute; it says the Lord set the ambushments.  So who ambushed those guys?  Angels?

Well, we can guess or we can keep reading.  What's the chances we'll get it right if we guess?

Right!  Let's keep reading!

Wow!  Ammon and Moab destroyed the inhabitants of Mount Seir and then they killed each other!  Who would have guessed that would happen?

This watch tower was what Ammon and Moab and Seir were going to use to see when Judah was coming.  But Judah got there and nobody was on watch because they were all dead.  And none escaped!  Judah didn't even have to chase them!

This spoil is not rotting vegetables.  It's the gold and jewels and other valuable things the army brought with them.

Notice it says the spoil was more than Judah could carry away.  Now think about that.

The armies brought the riches with them.  They carried it to that place.  And armies generally travel light, especially when they have a long way to go.  So those guys, travelling light, brought in more riches than Judah could carry away.

That must have been quite an army!  Judah was really outnumbered!  If Judah had tried to stop them without God's help, they would have been wiped out easily!

When you're outnumbered, God will take care of your enemies, too!

They got together and thanked God for the victory and for the riches - the spoil.

Now wait a minute!  They rejoiced over their enemies?  That doesn't sound very humanitarian.  And what happened to the spoil - the riches and jewels?  Didn't they send any of it back to the countries the soldiers came from?  Didn't they rebuild the countries whose armies were wiped out?

No!  Verse 25 says they stripped off the riches and jewels "for themselves".  They didn't send any of it back and they didn't rebuild the countries!  And look what happened as a result of that.

So Judah prayed to God, believed the revelation, trusted God, did what God told them to do, and kept the spoils!  And the fear of God was on all the other countries!  And Judah had peace.

Maybe we'd have peace in our nation if we did that!

Maybe the fear of God will be on your unbelieving neighbors and you'll have peace when you pray to God, believe His Word, trust Him, and do what God tells you to do.  I've lived in places where the neighbors didn't want to believe God.  In fact, they were thieves and drug dealers.  But I've heard them say to each other, talking about us, "Those are God's people.  Don't mess with them!"

God will take care of you!  Just trust Him!

This study was written by Jeffrey Moore, who lives in Southern California