I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me and heard my cry.  He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.  How blessed is the man ho has made the LORD his trust . . .”Ps 40:1-2, 4a 

 

Many years ago I had the opportunity to walk around a bog in Northern Michigan.  I found the bog to be an amazing place with its amazing plant life.  One of the lessons of the bog that stayed with me throughout the years is the deception of the bog.

 

For those who may not know what a bog is it is an inland lake that has had its intake source of water choked off by peat and has become a stagnant lake.  Over time, sphagnum moss covers the surface of the water like a floating carpet.  When you walk across the surface of the bog the carpet of moss moves enough to let you know that you are not standing on solid ground.   At any place on the mat of moss there is danger.  A puddle of water that you come across may or may not be a few inches deep.  The spot you step on may be solid or it may not.  There are on the bog what are called false bottoms.  The false bottom is dangerous because the hole will plunge the unsuspecting into the water beneath the mat.

 

When I thought about this earlier today I thought about how we place our security in many things which turn out to be false bottoms.  Much of our security is slippery and unstable.  Tomorrow may bring about an entirely different set of events than we have planned.  Tomorrow is not assured to us.  What is assured to us is our steadfast God.  It is He who causes us to stand on solid ground.  He is our Trust.  He is our Assurance.

 

When we place our trust in jobs, money, or any other thing we are, in effect, engaging in idolatry.  Idolatry is when we cease to worship God as He is due and place our confidence in something else.  When we trust other things we become proud and resistant to the voice of God.  We become calloused and hard.  We become skittish.

 

God is worthy of our trust because He has never failed.  He is always dependable.  He is always there.  There are no false bottoms with God.  Each step is planned in all of His wisdom.  Each turn is known before it is reached.  With faithful hands He guides us.  With strong arms He carries us along.  With determined will He takes us along the paths He has ordained for us.  Any other security is false and misleads us. 

 

Trust God to lead you along the firm pathways.  Trust God to know what He is doing.  Trust God, even when everything looks black.  God is more than capable and more than worthy of our trust.