artist: sean seal

7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Jeremiah 17:7,8

He tells us again and again. We are blessed. He asks not much from us and He asks all from us. For as we may say “I can trust” or “I have hope”, He sees our heart and we talk as we cower behind anguish that will halt our very track. The Lord will not deceive. He says we are blessed as we trust in Him. We are blessed as we place our hope in Him. Our anguish shall not envelop us and reduce us to words of escape, but we shall believe God with more than mere words: all of our hearts. Anguish is no match for Trust. He will pluck us from the sea of pain and we shall have rest. Blessed and comforted. Yea, we make our world big and God knows it is small. He sees our hearts and His eyes see our attempts to claw from the iron cage we are now trapped in, the one built from a bad day, a wronged word, a piercing glance. Our trap: We build it, we walk in, but we do not hold the key to exit. Ah, but He does. He frees us from our self-made trap, a trap that is built in the absence of trust, in the lack of hope. He frees us. We see Him with the fullness of our heart, and though we may languish in despair for a season, we know our key is in the fullness of our trust and hope. We are free of these things that bind. Our Father asks little but asks much…

He asks much. So, mere words of trust and hope are a start but how can we use them for a life free? Man will cry upon the Lord and not know Him. Man will curse the Lord and know Him not. We may cry trust, cry hope with our mouth, but what does our heart say? Here is where God looks as He will match what we say with what we mean. Sincerity. Submission. Faith. The latter the strongest. For we can be sincere and we can lay our lives down, but how wavering a faith do we hang on too? God knows our heart. As we again claw through the mired season of anguish, without a stronghold of true faith, our hope and trust thus is diminished. How much does He ask? Is it only a blessing we receive?

He asks us to mean what we say and speak it from our hearts across our lips. We talk to Him. He smiles in Fatherly fashion – pleased and welcoming. He is ever-beckoning us to His awaiting arms. Yes we are blessed and blessed is good. We are seen precious in His sight. We laid our life, as Jesus laid His life. Down. Every last breath of life. Down.

Now we are not ours but His. We gave in sincerity therefore we now learn a continual sincerity. Learn! He doesn’t even call upon us to be a perfect child. He will take on that matter….In our sincerity of Faith. Followed by hope and trust. How wonderful He is. From our sincere heart comes the love language of hope and trust that our Father is near. Our Father will always be with us. We see His loving eyes as our vision glazes with tears of joy. Our key, ever-present, our heart now pliable in His hand. Let Him. We are saved. But the transformation from insincere to sincere was not so easy albeit a requirement of our Father. For our ego holds back tears, beats at the inner walls of our entrapment. Our ego is a friend of the enemy at times. Cursed and abusive. But we lay our lives down and our ego thus dissipates into a mired abyss. It regularly returns, but the key we hold! The key is sincere hope and trust. Remember? Rest in that. Make your words more than mere words. Speak to God from a sincere heart and free you will become.

We will fear no drought and flourish in the greenness of a well watered tree-deeply rooted drinking the waters of the Spirit. Our heart is sincere. We love our Lord and He watches us.  For He loves us!

Rick Stassi
February 14, 2012