"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD.” Jr17.7
My children accuse me of “harping” on things. I do have tendencies not only toward repeating myself, but lingering and laboring monotonously over some point, which I think needs driving home.
The encouragement in this passage may seem to be repetitious even redundant. What is the difference in one who is trusting in the Lord and one whose trust is the Lord? Well for one, a person may trust in the Lord for some blessing which they believe will make them happy. Better, the person who finds happiness not in some blessing but in the Lord Himself. At the risk of being redundant let me put it this way. A person may look to the Lord for health or wealth, believing that these things are in their best interest. Now it is good to trust in the Lord, and every good and perfect gift comes from His gracious hand. But Father may decide, at least for a season, that it would be in this persons best interest to withhold health or wealth, if only for them to find their happiness not in circumstances but in Him. It may be a fine line but there is a difference in looking to God for reward, and finding God to be your very great reward. It is a fine line which is fine indeed.
I see a least one other distinction coming from this verse. We may look to God for some things and put our trust elsewhere when it comes to another area in our life. In other words, we may trust God for moral and spiritual matters but look to good ole “common sense” for material matters. By “common sense,” we usually mean our own understanding of a particular matter and we are cautioned against leaning on our own understanding, are we not? Blessed is anyone who looks to the Lord for any concern. Greater still is one who looks to the Lord for all concerns. 3/21/07 ts
Just me trying to be honest with God.
