May 20--What Holds You Up, So You're Never Let Down

It isn't intuitive to depend on others rather than get a job done myself.  But dependent trust is exactly what God wants from me, as I see in today's passages--1 Samuel 26-28, John 11:1-44, Psalm 116, Proverbs 15:22-23.

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Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

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Transcript

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May 20 What holds you up so you're never let down? I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. A woman's group from church gathers here throughout the year because I've been afraid it won't be good enough. I've overcompensated in the past by doing everything myself, but I'm learning to depend on others for help getting my house ready, for the food tasting good, for who shows up, and I've been inviting others to do the talking instead of doing all the talking myself. It's a lot easier to host like this, and it's a lot more fun for me. It must be more fun to attend because our numbers have grown from three to more than I've got chairs for. Some sit on stairs. Trust looks like this. It also looks like swimming and depending on the water to hold you up, baking sourdough and depending on the starter to rise, planting a garden and depending on sunshine and rain to grow it, starting the car and depending on it to take you where you want to go. Dependence? Who wants to be dependent? I don't like to depend on anybody because what if they don't come through in the clutch? I'd rather handle things myself rather than risk being disappointed. But trust might be the most important life skill I can learn because it rises from my utter need and it connects me to the God who is ready and able to meet me. Today's passages say how trusting God holds you up so you're never let down.

1 Samuel 26-28

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The Old Testament chapters are first Samuel twenty six to twenty eight. David has another chance to kill Saul, but he refuses to do anything against him. He holds Saul in high respect and calls him the Lord's anointed despite the fact that Saul keeps trying to kill him, and despite the fact that David's already been anointed as the one to replace him. How does David wait for it? He depends on God to bring about his kingship and God's timing. He knows that God doesn't need his help to put his plan into action. It was God's idea anyway, and David trusts him to make it happen. In the meantime, David goes to Philistine country to hide out from Saul's search party. Whether this is survival wisdom or faithlessness, the Bible doesn't say, but this is what he does for more than a year. While there he pretends to be loyal to Akish, the king, and he's so convincing that when Achish goes to battle against Israel, he asks God and his men to come fight with him. Akish's commanders get wind of it and say this won't work. Isn't this the guy who's killed tens of thousands of us? What if he turns on us in the middle of fighting because he wants to earn back his favor with Saul? So Akish tells David he'll have to turn back. It must come as a relief to David that he doesn't have to fight against his own people, seeing as how he's their next king. Awkward moment avoided. God rescues David from doing something he feels pressured into without his having to lose face or lift a finger to arrange it. Note that God's protection comes even though David lies to Achish, even though David does other things that are even more deceitful. Point being God's help doesn't depend on David deserving it. Deep cleansing breath over this. Saul gets the news that Achish and the Philistines are coming against him. He prays, but God won't answer him, so he asks a witch to summon Samuel from the dead to learn what's about to happen. It would be funny if it weren't so sadly ironic. For one thing, on a law and order kick several years before, Saul outlawed witchcraft and sorcery and did a clean sweep in Israel, so it's a little work to find a witch. For another, Saul never listened to Samuel while he was alive, let alone God, but now he wants to consult Samuel while he's dead? When the witch raises Samuel's spirit, there's no new news. Samuel repeats what he's already said. God has ripped Saul's kingdom out of his hands and given it to David. What's more, Israel will be defeated by the Philistines, and Saul and his sons will die in battle. If I were Saul, I'd see three obvious takeaways. One, don't go into battle with my sons. Two, make peace with Achish and don't lose any more soldiers trying to fight him, and three, repent for refusing to obey what God said, which is the reason God's taken away the kingdom in the first place. Instead, overcome by fear, Saul falls on his face and refuses to eat, even though he's weak with hunger. Saul's put his trust in the wrong thing all along, in what other people think rather than in what God thinks, and it's coming back to literally haunt him. He's turned his back on God's word through Samuel for so long that when he needs God most, well, he ghosts him. Saul gives in to those he's with and he finally eats something at the home of the witch, but food isn't what he most needs. What he needs is to take this chance to get right with God and repent. Had he fallen on his face before the one who keeps calling him up, who knows how things might have turned out. The way David and Saul respond to calamity couldn't be more different. David runs to God while Saul runs to a witch and a dead prophet. David refuses to take matters into his own hands, while Saul refuses to put himself in God's hands. David waits for God to move, while Saul charges ahead to his own doom and the doom of his sons and soldiers. How a person handles trouble tells you where their trust is. It's scary to lean totally on God when you're desperate, to depend on him as if he's the only savior in town, that is, unless he is the only savior in town, and then it's blessed relief, joy, and peace. Because come to God we must, and this is what hard times do for us. Whether time in the desert or in our own version of Philistine country, we're stripped of our idols so that we're left one on one with God Almighty. And what we find is that God's not asking us to fix our problems, do good deeds, or save the world to please him. What he wants is our simple trust, our dependence on him to be God for us. This is what the covenant promise was all about, God being God for his people and his people obeying what he tells them. And as his people, we listen to what he says and we do it. We talk to him about things, we confess and repent, we tell him what we want and need, we tell him what makes us tick and sick and sad and sorrowing. We praise and thank him, and walking with God like this, we learn to trust him. If getting out of a jam is what you most want from God, you're missing the point. He wants a relationship with you where he's the father you never had, and you're his child who trusts him. For all of David's mess ups and there are a lot, this is the one thing he keeps doing right. He keeps turning to the God who keeps showing up and saving him. The help we need isn't determined by our deserving it. It's determined by God's covenant promise to be God for us that was signed with Jesus' blood. This is the God you can trust. God's covenant promise to be your God holds you up, so you're never let

John 11:1-44

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down. The New Testament passage is John eleven, one to forty four. Jesus delays coming to see Lazarus after he learns he's sick, so that his disciples' faith is built. He tells them, quote, you're about to be given new grounds for believing, end quote. When he gets to Bethany, he's greeted by Martha, who's waiting, whose welcome is partly blaming and partly believing, quote, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Even now I know that whatever you ask God, he will give you, end quote. Jesus seems intent on pinning her faith down. He tells her he's the resurrection and the life, and not just for one day, but for right now. Martha confesses she's believed all along that he's the Messiah, the Son of God. But does she really mean it? Sister Mary hears Jesus has come and runs into town to greet him. Her welcome is also tinged with blame, but it's her sobbing that moves him, and he weeps. They go to the gravesite and Jesus says to move the stone, but Martha objects. Jesus asks her to remember what he said that if she believed, she'd see God's glory displayed. It's a tall order asking her to trust him this way with Lazarus already four days dead, but faith in Jesus is vital for his miracles. In one town Jesus did very few because no one there believed him. I love how Jesus isn't the lone wolf who came to save. He's the friend who lets us take part in what he does by trusting him. Martha musters her faith in him to do it, and maybe it's only one percent, but Jesus includes her anyway. When he shouts to Lazarus to come out, the miracle happens, and he let Martha participate by faith. Why does Jesus humble himself to allow her help like this? Because he's building disciples who are learning to trust him. Jesus' faith building friendship holds you up, so you're never let down.

Psalm 116, Prayer, Proverbs 15:22-23

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From Psalm one hundred sixteen The Psalmist loves God because God listened to his cry for help in his most desperate hour and rescued him, quote, when I was at the end of my rope he saved me, end quote, not when he was trying hard to make things work out. God's not looking for the person who's got this. He's not helping those who help themselves, as the saying goes. He's looking for those who are down on their luck, on their last leg, on their very last nerve. These are those who know they need him and ask for help. We aren't meant to travel through life by ourselves, making all our own decisions, doing all the hard work. We're meant to travel through life with God, listening to his words to guide us, trusting him to come through for us. There aren't any words here about soldiering on or being the change you want to see. The psalmist never mentions try hard to do better either. He writes about living by dependence and in trust, not by bootstraps. This is what frees us to enjoy ourselves, because life is not all up to me and I'm not all by myself. I get to quote stride in the presence of God alive in the land of the living, end quote. I can depend on the God who trades my trust for his saving. God's presence with you holds you up, so you're never let down. Prayer. God, if a tiny seed of faith and trust is all you need to work with, then fertilize mine and make it grow. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs fifteen, twenty-two to twenty three. The plan succeed by taking wise advice. Good words at the right time are big blessings. Passages in first Samuel, John, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve de Bartleaban, Robuck.