Trust AND Obey: the Potent Simplicity of Faith

TO BE happy in Jesus is to walk in the light of his Word, which is to trust and obey.

Both to trust and obey,

For there is no other way,

To be happy in Jesus,

Both to trust and obey.

To trust and obey is to walk with right and left legs, one after the other, as those of us who can walk do so; a spiritual walk with Jesus, as much as a physical walk is.

To trust and obey is to transact as buyers and sellers do — each giving and receiving in perfect proportion to the other, the exact goods and service the other has.

These two — trust and obedience — are the limbs of our spiritual countenance. And our expression of spirituality is forlorn without them both in rhythmic attendance.

What is it to Trust?

To obey implies trust. It is to step forward from the Word, seeking to honour his will, to walk into the light of knowledge, and to bear the fruit of him alone who sends us.

Trust has become a deed in the documentary sense. It is a promissory note. It is good to be cashed anywhere, anytime.

It is trust when we, like a child, take the Word of the Lord and we believe!

How it pleases God that we can get everything right in the mode of surrender; to know we know nothing, and to rely holus bolus on the Divinity of his character and nature.

And. Now. We cannot obey until we trust.

What is it to Obey?

So we have trusted and then obedience is simply the will to carry out that promise of trust. Obedience is embodied by trust, and indeed, it has the very character of trust about it.

Trust is the attitude of obedience, obedience is the behaviour of trust. There is nothing good about trust without the will to carry out what we have agreed is good.

Indeed, trust without obedience falls far short of true trust. Trust is epitomised, exemplified, and enabled in the transacting of obedience.

When we obey, even to the point of our own doubt, we trust; and perhaps the greater the doubt, the greater the point of trust and the more magnanimous is the trust in our obedience. The more we stand to be spiritually rewarded.

To obey is to trust.

And. Now. We cannot trust until we obey.

***

With the right foot we step, but we fall over if the left foot doesn’t follow.

With our right foot forward, inertia is created. We must step with the left or we will fall.

Trust is one leg, obedience is the other; one after the other in the walk of spiritual balance.

To trust and obey is to walk in spiritual balance, where to do anything else is to fall.

As that is, we cannot trust and not obey. We cannot obey and then not trust.

To walk with Jesus is both to trust and obey,

To trust and obey is to be faithful night and day.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.