By
Ron Thomas
LORD with all thine heart; and lean not
unto thine own understanding” (Prov. 3:5). To put one’s trust in the Lord means
not only one’s knowledge that He exists, but that He is the answer to all
questions related to life and relief that no man or woman can give, especially
if they live and operate by the philosophy that belongs to Satan. Those who trust
in the Lord also know that He will be the one who will make right what others
have made terrible wrong. This is to be our response to those frustrations of
life that seem to have no answers in the immediate context in which we live.
Thus, when Paul writes In Jeremiah 7, the Lord exhorted the people to hear
Jeremiah when he said, “Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the
LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these” (7:4, KJV).
The Lord was giving attention to the
willingness of the people to hear the “prophets of deceit” because they felt
the presence of the glorious Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem would prevent
Babylon’s threats from coming to realization. Even though Jeremiah preached
continuously that God was bringing Nebuchadnezzar to Jerusalem to punish the
people of the Lord, the people believed the prophets (of deceit) when they said
it would not happen (cf. Jeremiah 13:13-16). The people believed a lie and
wanted to believe the lie.
As the Lord’s prophet spoke to the Lord’s
people, one would think Jeremiah might have a ready audience to hear; sadly, he
had hardly an audience at all who wanted to hear (7:13). Because the people
refused to hear the Lord, they turned to themselves for guidance and then
became guilty of idolatry, oppression, murder, injustice, and to make it worse,
they presumed to think the Lord was on their side because of the Temple.
There is a powerful lesson in this for us.
Jerusalem is a “perfect” illustration for those who refuse to hear the Lord,
how they turn to themselves for wisdom and guidance and then take office in
D.C. and the state legislatures! The powerful lesson we learn is this: If you
(any one of us) put trust in something other than the Lord, we are trusting
lying words, words that promise help, relief, but actually tighten the bondage
to the point of strangling. Solomon wrote, “Trust in the about all things working
together for good to those that love the Lord, what he means is that those who
love the Lord, obey His will, salvation results. “Now faith is assurance of
things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1, ASV).
To put your trust in the Lord may be easier
said than done because everywhere about you, you see and hear the activities of
life and wonder if you should think this and do that. This was exactly the
problem of the people in the days of Jeremiah. How does one put his (or her)
trust in the Lord? By spending time with the Lord.
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