Trusting AND Trying

"[W]hen it comes to growth in godliness, trusting does not put an end to trying" (91). The Hole in Our Holiness ~ Kevin deYoung

"Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness."

(Psalm 37:3 ESV)

There is no resting on your laurels in the kingdom of God. There is no time behind the lines, no leave from the war--we're always in the trenches.

The Christian life is more of a Sisyphean endeavour--when we think we are getting somewhere, we are closer to falling than we would like to admit. That boulder of pride (or false humility) or anger (or repressed rage) or fear (or false confidence). . . the moment we think we have it conquered is the moment it slides back down the hill.


"So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand."

(Romans 7:21 ESV) 

Thank God for His grace. We don't have to do it ourselves.

However, we are still supposed to keep trying. We are to trust that our efforts to grow in godliness are of benefit and blessed by the Holy Spirit. 

"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

(1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV)

It is how we confirm our calling and election (2 Peter 1: 9). And because we are not saved by our works, we don't have to fear our failure.

[31] What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32] He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? [33] Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. [34] Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. [35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? [36] As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”[37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

(Romans 8:31-37 ESV)

[3] His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, [4] by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. [5] For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, [6] and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, [7] and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. [8] For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. [10] Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. [11] For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

(2 Peter 1:3-11 ESV)

The Practice of Holiness

“People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”
― D.A. Carson  

Holiness is not a habit. There is a reason we are called to practice spiritual discipline.

We must train ourselves in the practice of holiness. There is a reason Paul likens our lives as Christians to the training of an athlete. Athletes don't have a habit of training; they discipline themselves to train. And they don't just train for the fun of it, they have a goal in mind, a purpose.

[25] Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. [26] So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. [27] But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

(1 Corinthians 9:25-27 ESV)

Our practice of holiness is not running aimlessly; rather,  it is part of our sanctification, part of the refining process we must go through in order to become more like Christ. Being His image-bearers is not simple or easy; it takes work. Disciplining our bodies, our minds, and our spirits can be painful. As we are bent in the direction the Vinedresser wants us to grow, our branches may ache and long for release back to the way that they are naturally inclined to go. But He knows best how to tend His Vines so that they will bear the most fruit.

"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

(Hebrews 12:11 ESV)

Holiness requires conscious practice. It means vigilant self-examination, seeing ourselves as we truly are and identifying our sin. Speaking and confessing it, not keeping it to ourselves and hiding what we have done. We must be honest with ourselves and with God about our failures, and must pray for His grace,  that He will show us those sins we do not want to acknowledge, that He would heal us of our spiritual amnesia.

We need to be careful, however, that in our focus on personal holiness, we do not forget the goal--"holiness" without Christ is pompous and priggish Phariseeism. Navel-gazing will not make us holy. Once we look away from Christ to ourselves, we have lost sight of the goal.

True self-examination "[looks] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God"
(Hebrews 12:2 ESV).

[6] If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. [7] Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; [8] for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. [9] The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. [10] For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

(1 Timothy 4:6-10 ESV)

Wilderness: Part 4 “Running Away”

1 Kings 19:1-18 ESV

1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow. 3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers. 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat. 6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you. 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? 10 He said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away. 11 And he said, Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? 14 He said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away. 15 And the Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. 16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. 17 And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. 18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him. (italics mine)

Elijah flees, afraid for his life, yet, a day’s journey into the wilderness, he asks God to “take away” his life, claiming, “It is enough.” The phrase is a foreshadowing of Christ’s “It is finished”, but Christ’s work was complete, truly finished, while Elijah’s is “enough” only in his estimation. Yet God takes pity on him, and feeds him, two times telling him to “Arise and eat.” After his journey (40 days and 40 nights, yet another foreshadowing of Christ, this time of his time being tempted in the wilderness), he lodges in a cave. It seems as though he takes up residence there for a time.

God comes to him, and asks “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah whines out that “those unbelievers are trying to kill me, the only prophet left.”

God doesn’t reply to this obvious excuse, but instead tells Elijah to “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” Elijah obeys and is shown three powerful elements–wind, earthquake, and fire. But the Lord is in none of these. Then he hears “the sound of a low whisper” a small, still voice–This is the Lord.

Once again the Lord asks “What are you doing here, Elijah?” And Elijah repeats verbatim his first answer to the question. And again the Lord tells him to “Go,” but this time sends him away–he is sent to “the wilderness of Damascus”–he has a job to do there.

All this time, Elijah has been in the wrong wilderness!!

He ran away, afraid to be killed for his faith, yet asks the Lord to take away his life. Elijah has been hiding in the wilderness. He excuses his actions–they want to kill me–forgetting that his life is not in his own hands, but in God’s Hands. Only God has control over it. And God has the right to command him–whether to life or to death. Elijah has the duty to obey–no questions, no trying to hide from something he can’t control–no excuses. God shows him that even one still, small voice is important–that he cares for that voice–feeding it so that it will not faint and die on the journey–40 days and 40 nights. God doesn’t have it in for Elijah, and Elijah is not left to Jezebel’s whims–God is always in control. But Elijah must reminded of this, even after the great acts he did in God’s name just before this (see preceding chapter).

Sometimes God calls, allures, us into the wilderness to commune with Him–sometimes we run there, trying to escape His plans, and hiding from His purpose for us. We think–I’d rather die by God’s Hands, than by “others”, forgetting that we always die when God decrees it. We can never hide from death because God is in control of both our living and our dying.

Are you in the wilderness because God has allured you there or because you are hiding from His purpose? Ask–Am I being refreshed and thriving here or am I parched and withering?

God “knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” (Ps. 103:14) He feeds us in the wilderness, even when we are trying to leave Him, trying to run away.

When we run away from God’s will for us, we enter the wrong wilderness, a wilderness where there are no living streams to quench our thirst–we enter a wilderness of our own making, a wilderness away from God. Yet, thanks be, God “never leaves us or forsakes us,” even though we may try to leave Him. He is so merciful, even repeating Himself to get the message into our thick skulls and stony hearts. Looking at the above passage, we can see that repetition plays a large role. God doesn’t leave us alone; He wants us with HIM.

Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel, who desired to kill him. We may be fleeing our own Jezebel–those sinful parts of us that want to kill off the good. However, we can also be fleeing what is right–standing up against our evil nature. We chicken out, running away from the situation, pretending it doesn’t exist and praying for God to “take us now,” so that we don’t have to fight anymore. We don’t like killing ourselves, our old nature–that would be self-sacrifice–something we really don’t like. Our old nature is so attractive, after all. We’d rather run away and avoid the situation, than face it and die. When we run away from the fight, we are running away from God. We don’t, it seems, think He is worth our life. So rather than do the right thing, even though it will cost us something important, we run like cowards, and wonder why God has “left” us alone.

We must pray:

Ps. 139

[1] O LORD, you have searched me and known me!

[2] You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

[3] You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

[4] Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

[5] You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

[6] Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high; I cannot attain it.

[7] Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

[8] If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

[9] If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

[10] even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

[11] If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

[12] even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

[13] For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

[14] I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

[15] My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

[16] Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

[17] How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

[18] If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

I awake, and I am still with you.

[19] Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!

O men of blood, depart from me!

[20] They speak against you with malicious intent;

your enemies take your name in vain.

[21] Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

[22] I hate them with complete hatred;

I count them my enemies.

[23] Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

[24] And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting!

(Psalm 139 ESV)

Ps. 143:8,10 “Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me to know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul…10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”

Wilderness: Part 3 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her”

Even so would he have allured thee out of the jaws of distress into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and the supply of thy table [would be] full of fatness. Job 36:16 (Darby Translation)

Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness. Job 36:16 (KJV)

Indeed, God would have allured you out of the mouth of distress into a broad place where there is no situation of perplexity or privation; and that which would be set on your table would be full of fatness.
Job 36:16 (Amplified Bible)

Then indeed, He enticed you from the mouth of distress, Instead of it, a broad place with no constraint;
And that which was set on your table was full of fatness. Job 36:16 (New American Standard)

Indeed, He lured you from the jaws [a] of distress to a spacious and unconfined place. Your table was spread with choice food. ([a]Lit from a mouth of narrowness) Job 36:16 (Holman Christian Standard)

The word in the above Bible verse is translated in various ways: allured, lured, enticed, removed. At first I thought that this was the same word as used in Hosea 2:14 (Therefore, behold, I will allure her….), however, this, I discovered, is not the case. I went looking for different verses using this word and discovered that the word translated “allure” in Hosea 2:14 (pathah) is completely different than that in Job 36:16 and is used in more pejorative contexts, particularly those involving deceit and persuasion. The word “allured/removed/lured/enticed” in Job 36:16 (cuwth) is also used in contexts of persuasion, but it actually is a more literal translation in that it does mean “allure, entice” (it can also be used when someone instigates someone to evil). The definition of the second word (cuwth) does not involve seduction(the first, pathah, does); this word seems to apply to a more forthright type of persuasion, rather than one of deceit/trickery.

It is interesting that it is the deceitful/seductive “allure” that is used in Hosea 2:14. Because Israel is so foolish, God must seduce her into the wilderness, playing on her gullibility and sensuality (she has gone “whoring” after other gods) to get her alone with Him.

This makes sense when viewed in light of a following verse, Hosea 2: 16: And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Baali.

Ishi means in this context (see KJV) “Husband”, while Baali means “My Lord” or “Master” (Baal is also the name of a heathen god). Israel views the Lord as a taskmaster who has laid requirements upon her, while He wants to be her Husband and His laws are only just. Israel (and all man) broke God’s laws in the Garden of Eden, ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and now has to live by laws. If Man had not fallen, we would not have to have laws: we would have lived by God’s will naturally.

Israel’s rightful Husband must seduce his Bride in order to get the chance to regain her affections.

In Job 36:16, God removes Israel from a place of want (“strait” place, “mouth of distress”, “mouth of narrowness”) to a broad place where all her needs are met. Her appetite is sated with fat. (Besides being very desirable in a situation of starvation, fat is also a wonderful vehicle for flavour. God gives His people sustenance and savour in the food He puts before her. In the old temple sacrifices, God always required the fat, the part with the most caloric value.)

God allures Israel from the jaws of distress. Israel doesn’t want to leave, even though she is starving. God has to persuade her, entice her, from a place of want. He lures her to a place where she has plenty to eat. This applies to physical needs as well as spiritual ones.

Wilderness: Part 2 “A Refuge in the Wilderness”

Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.

Hosea 2:14 KJV

Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Song of Solomon 8:5a ESV

And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. Ps. 55:6-8 KJV

The wilderness is not just a place of desolation, but also a place of refuge. God leads us, “allures” us into the wilderness to be alone with us. The wilderness is a place of silence and rest. It is harsh and apparently barren, but it is also a place to be alone in meditation, away from the bustle and noise of everyday life (“the windy storm and tempest” that buffets us). We can listen in the wilderness, like Elijah, for that “still, small voice” which is the voice of God(1 Kings 19:12).

Before Christ began his ministry, directly after his baptism, he spent time in the wilderness, forty days and forty nights. “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness”(Luke 4:1). Christ was tempted of the devil there, it was a time of testing, as it often is for us as well; however, later Christ went away from the crowds to pray and commune with God. “And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone” (Matt. 14:23). An apparently barren place becomes a fruitful place of prayer.

Being led, allured, into the wilderness does not mean that our spiritual life is put on hold, while we struggle through a desert on our own, beset by the temptation to give up and yield to the seductions of the world. God brings us into the wilderness to “speak comfortably” to us, as an alternate translation(Darby) says, “to speak to [our] heart[s]“. 

The silence allows us to hear Him speak; in the wilderness His voice is not drowned out by the tempests and distractions of the world. By the grace of God, we can find wells of life-giving water in the wilderness, like Hagar(“And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water” Gen. 21:19a).

We must be careful to take advantage of our wilderness times and use them to grow closer to God, rather than away from Him. Prayer is important here and meditation on God’s word. Sometimes, it will seem that God is not listening to us and we will beg like David,“Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were”(Ps. 39:12), and claim like him that God has promised that “He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them” (Ps. 145:19). 

We must not become discouraged, but let God pursue us even as we pursue Him.

Wilderness: Part 1 “And speak to her heart”

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.

(Hosea 2:14 ESV)

For the LORD comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. (Isaiah 51:3 ESV)

In Hosea 2:14, we told that we are brought by God into the wilderness. The wilderness is usually regarded as a bleak place, scarce of water and harsh. But God takes His Bride there, the Bride that had run from Him to other lovers, in order to be alone with her, to woo her back to Him. The last portion of the verse speaks of this. It says “I will…speak comfortably unto her” (KJV) or as another translation puts it, “I will…speak to her heart” (Darby). The Hebrew word translated as “comfortably” in the KJV, actually means “inner man, mind, will, heart”, so the Darby translation really is closer in meaning to the original (as far as I can discover).

The heart is the centre of a person; it is our most vulnerable spot. I am not talking physically, though this is also true, but mentally, spiritually. When God speaks to our heart, He speaks to us, the true “us”, the one that hides behind the things we can do and the life we lead and the ambitions we pursue. He speaks to the real “me”, that core of soul that makes me “me” — and He uses words of love.

My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
Song of Solomon 2:10-13 (KJV)

The word “speak” in Hebrew, Dabar, has many interpretations, declare, speak, command, converse, threaten, warn –some rather chilly, disturbing words– but there are some more meanings, “promise” and, surprisingly, “sing”. In this context (“My beloved spake”), singing would fit the context as well as the poetry. We are crooned to by God, wooed with love poetry. Twice, we are begged to “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”

God wants to be our loving Husband, but we keep running away. So He takes us into the desert, where we have no luxuries to distract us. He wants all our attention focused on Him. We are to look to Him for everything necessary for life in the desert — food and water. But God is not stingy. He doesn’t starve us.

In Isaiah 51:3, He says that He will comfort us. The wilderness shall become like the garden of the Lord, like Eden.

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. Isaiah 35:1

He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Song of Solomon 2:4

A place of barrenness becomes a banqueting house when Love brings us there.

The next verse in Hosea 2 speaks of Israel singing in the desert, which is now become fruitful–literally.

God does not only give His Bride water, but wine (vineyards).

 And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. (Hosea 2:15 ESV)

A place of trouble, the valley of Achor, where Achan and his family were stoned after he stole goods from the city of Jericho, becomes a door of hope. The place where we stole from God (stole the glory and love that is rightfully His as our true Husband, giving it away to false lovers) becomes the scene of reconciliation and grace. New hope will spring up here, a new life with Christ as our Ishi, our Husband.