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TRUST BELONGS TO GOD ALONE!
by Dick Smith

It seems to me that as Christians we have too often embraced the patterns of the culture. We know that we are in this culture but that does not mean that we are of the culture. Just as Scripture reminds us that we are in the world but not of the world. Scripture is so important for us because it declares to us Law and Gospel, that is, judgment for sin and forgiveness of sin through Christ. We deal with words as central to our understanding of Christ. Great responsibility goes with our use of words then because they convey our understanding of Christ and our relationship to the world because of Christ.

This responsibility is arguably breaking down in relation to those who hold public office. Too often the term, "trust " is bantered around with singular disregard for what it really means and for whom the term is reserved. Politicians in the midst of the heat of campaigns will often succumb to the temptation of idolatry and call on the electorate to "Trust " them. A politician who is a Christian would never suggest or even hint at such idolatry. He or she would know by the very fact of Christ that "Trust " belongs only to God. It is idolatry to put trust in a human being.

But it is not only politicians who engage in this idolatry. I have heard many professing Christians speak of our need to "Trust" those who hold church office and public office. Ironically, at this moment in history when we, as a nation, are engaged in a "War Against Terror," I hear even more comments about the need to "Trust " the leaders of nation-states and public servants. Precisely at the moment when we desperately need to have Trust where it belongs, we are talking about putting it where it does not belong!
We have to ask: What does God say to all this?

"THUS SAYS THE LORD: 'CURSED IS THE MAN WHO TRUSTS IN MAN and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

‘BLESSED IS THE MAN who trusts in the Lord, WHOSE TRUST IS THE LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit'" (Jeremiah 17:5-8 RSV, My emphasis).

"Trust is the Lord," Jeremiah quotes God. It is not a human accomplishment. Rather it is God's gift to us through His Election of us in Christ. "(Trust) ... is the real presence of (the Lord) Christ in us as a redeeming reality, which as an invisible and incomprehensible but divine reality tears us away from and places us in contrast to all other reality" (Regin Prenter, Spiritus Creator, pg. 50).

My friend: TRUST BELONGS TO GOD ALONE!

Rev. Dick Smith, serves Heart River Lutheran Church, bringing Christ to youth at the Youth Correctional Center in Mandan, North Dakota. You may write directly to Rev. Smith at dicksmith9@bis.midco.net

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