Trust And Obey

Fr. Dale Matson

In what has been a difficult adjustment for me in the final stage of life, I recently had the lyrics of one of our Sunday School songs running through my head (Trust And Obey). For a PSTD survivor, the road back from mistrust has been a long and difficult one. Trusting God has been the most difficult task for me even though God has never forsaken me or let me down.

I think the idea of Trust is rightly coupled with Obey. God is both Sovereign and Trustworthy. For many years I focused on both God’s quality of Mercy and His quality of Grace. Maybe as one reborn out of due time, I was still looking for God’s permissive wiggle room. I loitered as an adolescent Christian who wanted to believe in God but was less willing to believe God. This is the Abrahamic faith… believing God. The first sense is theological and theoretical. The second sense is obeying God because you believe God.

The infirmities of aging and my own anxieties about death have surfaced during this winepress of the last three years. My own confidence in myself has eroded and I find myself wanting to lean on God more and more. I often pray for the trust to do so.

My egocentric anxiety driven needs which fueled my goals (and the determination to accomplish these goals) were permitted by God. In this late life retooling I must see my goals as God ordained, directed and empowered. It is God’s vitae (glory) that needs my attention now.

Lord help me to Trust and Obey. 

Trust And Obey 

1 When we walk with the Lord

in the light of his word,

what a glory he sheds on our way!

While we do his good will,

he abides with us still,

and with all who will trust and obey.

Refrain:

Trust and obey, for there's no other way

to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

2 Not a burden we bear,

not a sorrow we share,

but our toil he doth richly repay;

not a grief or a loss,

not a frown or a cross,

but is blest if we trust and obey. [Refrain]

3 But we never can prove

the delights of his love

until all on the altar we lay;

for the favor he shows,

for the joy he bestows,

are for them who will trust and obey. [Refrain]

4 Then in fellowship sweet

we will sit at his feet,

or we'll walk by his side in the way;

what he says we will do,

where he sends we will go;

never fear, only trust and obey. [Refrain]

John H. Sammis 1887