Whom do we really trust?
“Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust…O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot.”~Psalm 16:1, 5
Our national motto since 1956 has been, “In God we trust.” Is it really God we trust in or the paper that motto is printed on? Do we mean it like David did, seeing God as our sole source of preservation and life?
The answer depends not on how many church services we attend or religious activities we do-God knows we have far too many of those going on in His name without Him. If it did depend on that, we would be the source or our own preservation, not God. No. We come empty handed to Our Father; in need of everything. The answer depends exclusively on the condition of our soul.
The soul is where trust in God is found, if genuine. The temple most pleasing to God is our heart – not a place. David knows. He speaks of those who do not:
Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god;~Psalm 16:4
In Jeremiah 7, the prophet speaks to a people like unto us – a people who pay lip service to God and do many religious things, but act against him.
Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’…”Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the LORD.~Jeremiah 7:4, 8-11
What ‘sorrows’ come upon a people who say they love God, yet steal, commit adultery, lie, worship idols and follow gods of the age? What happened to the people Jeremiah warned (God’s people – the Israelites).
They were warned that God was going to cast them out (Jer.7:15), would not hear their prayers (Jer 7:16), pour our his wrath upon them (Jer 7:20), and cut them off from the truth (Jer 7:28). And he did.
If a foreigner were to examine our money, our motto and our culture, they would have to assume that the God spoken of was someone other than the God of the Bible. While the majority of our country is still professing some form of Christianity, only a remnant truly has Christ as their source of life and Lordship. Let us examine ourselves with Psalm 16:8:
I have set the LORD always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
What do I constantly set before my eyes? Is is television/entertainment? A car? A boyfriend/girlfriend? A ministry? A sport? Or is it Christ? Only if it is Christ can I say with confidence, “I shall not be moved.”
Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’
5 “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. ~Jeremiah 7:4-7
David speak of his Lord in Psalm 16:10-
For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
He is the only One who can show us the path of life. All idols lead to death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdmS1u7BKvg