A Track Record with the Lord

“But You, Lord, are a shield around me,
My glory, and the One who lifts my head.
I was crying out to the Lord with my voice,
And He answered me from His holy mountain.

Selah

I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the Lord sustains me.
I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me all around.”

When David found himself in trouble, he would remember the dealings he had had with the Lord in other times of trouble. He did this with Goliath, remember? He said to Saul, “Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” He knew that when he was fighting to rescue “sheep”, the Lord God would be with him, no matter how great the enemy might look. It had been so before; and it would be so again.

Thus, David’s relationship with the Lord deepened. What should have frightened him off did not. He had a track record with God that gave him confidence against fatal enemies.

Now, let this be said: David’s experience is not directly transferable to me. He experienced his history of being relieved by the Lord, and I must have my own history, my own “track record” with the Lord. Otherwise, I do not learn and grow in my relationship with him. It’s only in my own encounters with “lions” and “bears” that I become confident in the Lord. But the God of David is my God; and I can learn about him the same things David did — if I am willing to do as David did, and walk with him through my times of testing.

Getting a Track Record

Why doesn’t every Christian have that sort of track record of experience with the Lord? Well, every real son of God is going to get one. Challenges, sufferings, sacrifices and trials are essential. They are prepared by the Lord as “disciplines” for those he is teaching that he is faithful and worthy of their love and trust. Those the Lord loves, he disciplines; and if we find we are without such disciplines, we’re not sons.

But this project is one with which we can cooperate, or one with which we can interfere. It depends on our response, really. One of the most important lessons a Christian has to learn is that God alone holds the plan, the blueprint of the course of our lives.

But I want to be the one holding it. However, God is committed to me NOT holding it. He never hands it over, not even for a minute, and especially not in those moments when I imagine I’ve actually glimpsed the plan. Moreover, he has not handed it to me through promises in his word given to others, and he will not hand it to me in my daily personal life; for he is committed to the project of me learning what it is to trust him, and to know that his blueprint is the right one for my life and future.

What will this look like, in practical terms? He’s going to let me suffer and experience trials in ways I don’t always understand: and each time, it will be a test to me to surrender my demand for the blueprint, and to trust him.

How We Block the Plan

Are we learning the lesson? Are we accepting the discipline of being drawn into a deeper relationship with our heavenly Father, and being conformed to the image of God’s Son? Are we leaving the blueprint in the hands of the Lord?

Let me suggest two ways we can interfere with his plan for us.

One way is by short-circuiting the discipline, by compromising in the moment of trial. For example, if people around me don’t even know I’m a Christian, or that my values are any different from theirs, they won’t test me on those values. Or if they suggest I join them in something I know is contrary to God’s will, and I let them simply imagine my reasons for opting out are purely practical, such as that it didn’t happen to be convenient — not that I was morally against it — then they won’t test me. And I won’t have a testimony, and I won’t learn the faithfulness of God and won’t grow in that respect.

Another way is by taking on the trial, but not doing so as a Christian. For example, instead of looking to the Lord and his plan, I attempt to solve it myself, without walking with the Lord through it — perhaps because I believe I am sufficient for the moment, or that turning to the Lord is not necessary. Or I am in the trial, but not with the perspective that the Lord is present in it, because I have no practice of time with the Lord in the morning, reading his word and looking for his plan; consequently, the trial isn’t even seen by me as being in the light of his presence and will. I have compartmentalized spirituality from life, and see the trial as part of life but spirituality as a strange activity in which I engage on Sundays, but which is unconnected to the rest of life.

Such decisions and dispositions will rob me of the experience of growth in my faith and the deepening of my relationship with the Lord. Yet the Lord, in his graciousness, is committed to me facing such trials. He does not give up on his sons. So, if I will not respond in the first trial, there will be more and more, until I reach despair of my own resources and begin to rely on him, and know the reality David discovered. He will create the track record, one way or another.

Running on Track

There will be trials. But my response, my disposition will decide what measure of peace and confidence I get to experience in the midst of those trials. The sooner I learn David’s lesson, that God is the conqueror of lions, bears and Philistines, and the sooner I start to walk confidently with him daily, the better my life is going to be and the sooner I’ll learn the faithfulness of the Lord.

Have you felt that? Have you experienced the goodness of the Lord in the midst of trials? What’s the level of your confidence that when the next trial comes, the Lord will be there for you? This depends on the development of a track record with God. It’s something strictly between you and him. But you can expedite it by not short-circuiting the trials; by accepting them as a Christian, as one with a public testimony; by not imagining you can handle your own problems and becoming overconfident about your own sufficiency; and by having your own daily time putting your life into perspective through submitting to God in reading, meditation and prayer before you take on your day.

In Perspective

But there’s a shift in perspective we need here: we need to see the trials as contextualized by the dealings of God with us in the past. If we see them as just “happenings”, as miseries randomly visited upon us by life, as out of any relationship to the dealings of God, we’ll miss the opportunity to grow in our confidence in him, and we’ll miss the peace and strength that resting in the goodness of the intentions of God toward us can bring. But if we see them as the gracious dispensations of an opportunity to become heroic in the name of God, we will have much more joy and much less fear in the midst of trial. We’ll also win.

As for the blueprint, we leave that in God’s hands. What trials we need and when they will come, those are his concern. He alone knows what is necessary for his sons to experience. The trials of the past can become a resource of strength for the future … or just a litany of unhappy events that make us ever more nervous about what may come. It will depend on our sense of our spiritual track record with the Lord.

How’s yours going?