“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid:
for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my
salvation.” (Isa 12:2 AV)
There
is a seeming contradiction here. The act
of trusting is future tense. “I WLL
trust…” Yet, the act of saving is
present tense. “…God is…JEHOVAH is…he
also is…” How we feel about our circumstances does not change the present
condition of them. The writer will trust
and not be afraid because at the present, God is!
It
can only work this way. It cannot work
the opposite. It cannot work in the
manner that we trust, then if we trust, God becomes our salvation. Then it becomes our trust that establishes
the attributes of God. Rather, God is
what He is and we trust because of that.
A picture comes to mind. I hate heights. Scared to death of them. The fear of falling is the greatest reason I repented
and ask Christ to save me. Hell is a
bottomless pit. I couldn’t even imagine
the sensation of falling for all of eternity.
Imagine one of those rope bridges spanning a deep canyon below. You have to cross it. (I couldn’t do
it. Shoot me now!) That rope bridge is
either going to hold your weight, or it isn’t.
As you watch others cross safely, you are finally convinced that it is
safe. You cross that bridge. That bridge was just as strong before you crossed
it as it was when you crossed. Crossing
the bridge didn’t make it any stronger. The
strength existed before the choice.
So
too is the salvation of God. It waits
for us to trust. Christ died for our
sins 2000 years ago. The conditions of
our salvation already existed. He did
not die afresh when we trusted. Life’s
challenges and trials are the same. God
knows the future. We are in His
hand. Our problem has always been one of
trust and faith. God has not
changed. His power is infinite. Faith and trust are hard. No one has a right to make light of it. We are terrified because we need to learn to
trust. Yet, God is there. His arms are open to catch us if we simply
take a leap of faith. He has never
changed. So, we trust in the past and
present, realizing the future in the process.
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