Catherine Martin has written a great book that our women’s class is working through, “Trusting in the Names of God.” So far it has been different from other books on this same topic as I expected her to list names and do a study on each of them.
Rather, this book, though I haven’t finished it yet, seems to be leading us to study the names for ourselves and then will be providing supporting evidence on just why we can trust in the name of the Lord. I’m sure I’ll have more to say when I’ve actually completed the book. But don’t hold your breath. While it’s meant to be a 30 day book, our class is taking it much slower than that.
What has caused me to pause this week is the following statement that she makes on page 80: “When the Old Testament people of God made their declaration to God, their heart commitment influenced their relationship with the Lord, leading them to trust and obedience.”
What I am currently most interested in is the phrase: “their heart commitment influenced their relationship with the Lord”. This is very revealing as you study the relationship and the significance of a personal commitment.
Because they had made the commitment to Him, they were irrevocably bound into a relationship with Him. That makes perfect sense to us, right? Isn’t that the way it is now? Hmm, is it?
Saying we’re His is easy to do. But what about when the toilet backs up, or your car breaks down, or your seasonal work has expired, or when your economic situation has led you to despair?
Or for some, what about when all the bills are paid, or you’ve just found out that you are the heiress to a large fortune, or business is booming?
Are your circumstances controlling your relationship with the Lord? When things are bad, have you decided that the Lord has forsaken you and therefore you avoid Him? When times are good, have you fallen prey to believing that you don’t need Him? Do events, people, or economics influence your relationship with the Lord?
Or, as in the quoted statement, does your heart commitment influence your relationship with the Lord? Have you, have I, decided that no matter what–good times or bad–my relationship with the Lord is most important? This is, honestly, a difficult thing to write because I find myself falling short of that level of commitment. I do find my relationship influenced by other things. Things like how I feel physically, who hurt my feelings, my schedule, economics and the list can go on. Perhaps you even have your own list.
With no foundation for the relationship, meaning a firm commitment, how then can I progress to the next part, “trust and obedience”?
Too many of us are playing with the relationship part, looking for the warm fuzzy, without a firm and unmoveable heart commitment.
What I’m seeking to articulate may be helped as we look a human relationships. Consider a couple who know each other on a surface basis, they flirt and joke and have a pretty good time when they happen to meet. But they have not commited their hearts to one another, so any real relationship is not happening. Just shallow bantering.
Compared with a couple who has made a heart commitment to one another who also flirts and has a fun relationship. What is the difference? The second couple trusts one another and the relationship is much richer and fuller and has substance incomparable to that of the first couple.
How different things could be if I were able to maintain my firm heart commitment, never wavering. But many of us get it backwards sometimes. We forget that a rich full relationship has to start with the commitment to belong. It has to have a foundation that declares that all parties invloved are bound together, no matter what.
God has made that declaration very clear. Now, have I?



