Late last
year, a conversation I had with a friend led me to schedule one morning a month
as a time of concentrated prayer and communion with the Lord as part of my
work. I call it “Jesus and Jammies,” because I have absolutely no intention of getting
out of my jammies for these mornings. I have every intention of
hunkering down at home, avoiding texts, phone calls, and emails, and simply being
with Jesus. Studying the Word. Praying. Seeking His heart for the trajectory I
take in my role at the church.
This past Monday was my first Jesus
and Jammies morning, and I decided to set the tone of my heart by spending
some time in Psalm 37, studying verse 3.
Trust in the Lord, and do
good, dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
I learned so much and felt like the
very words of this verse were perfect for a day of seeking God’s desire for the
days ahead in my job.
This verse, and the couple that
follow, are frequently extracted as stand-alone quotes, but as I studied, I
learned much by coupling it with the verses I studied the last couple of weeks.
These words are the do this to the first two weeks of not that.
The first verses talked about
not fretting or being envious because of those who don’t do what is right. But
you’ve probably learned, the same as I have, that anytime you remove a behavior
from your life, you would do well to replace it with something else. And this
third verse is the something else.
We start by trusting in the
Lord. These were words I knew but sure appreciated as a reminder, as I think
about the days to come. Nothing ominous looms (to my knowledge) but all work,
in or out of a church setting, depends on trusting in the Lord. It’s very true
for me in the things I’m planning and designing. As I do them, I need to trust
God for the ideas, the people, and the outcome.
But if you think about these
words in relation to what we learned the last couple of weeks, it might be fastest
to say don’t put your ultimate trust in people, because they aren’t
consistent or trustworthy, but God is. Trusting in Him is a worthwhile use of
time.
Then…we do good. I read this quote
in a commentary – “The best way to keep the mind from fretting is to always be
engaged in doing good, to occupy the mind in something useful.” It’s so true.
Rather than spending all our hours wringing our hands about the things that
bring fretting, take that time and put it to good use.
Dwell in the land. Goodness,
when things aren’t going well, it’s easy to want to run away to greener
pastures, isn’t it? (I say this to myself, because winter hasn’t been going
well, and I’ve been asking Ryan if we can move to the tropics!) What would it
look like to dwell (joyfully!) in the place God has given us and do all the
good we can in that very place?
The last part of this verse can
look very different, depending on your translation of the Bible. I study from
the ESV and it says “and befriend faithfulness.” Other translations say things
like “and be fed” or “enjoy safe pasture” or “cultivate faithfulness.” After
doing some digging, I found that the bottom line is that when we are focused on
trusting God, doing the good we can do, and staying in the land of promise God
has given us, we will find that we’ll live by His faithfulness and provision.
We’ll feed on His truths and offerings and not have to worry about our needs
being met.
And so, as I make my way through
this week – and the weeks to come – I am turning my heart toward trusting,
doing, and dwelling. I’ll leave the rest to God. He will take care of the
wrongdoers. He will take care of my needs. He will take care of the outcomes.
My job is to trust, do, and dwell!
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