My Story…My Song…’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

MY STORY…MY SONG…’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.               Proverbs 3:5-6  NRSV

I remember singing this song in Sunday School long before I could read a note to sing or play the piano.  I cannot fully explain why as a youngster this song captured my heart.  I now believe it had something to do with the sweetness of Jesus captured in the whole of the song.  Or maybe it was the sweetness that trusting Him brought to one’s life, even as a child.  In the church of my upbringing, we practiced believer’s baptism; I remember well the morning that I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior along with several of my Sunday School classmates.

The Sunday School lesson was from The Gospel of John, chapter 1, where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan.  As a 7-year-old who had been in Church more-than-regularly for her brief years, I think I had known long before that Sunday that I wanted Jesus to be my personal Savior. I remember being taught way back then that one of the gifts of salvation was living in personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  It was a gift that would actually transform the way you lived with an unseen God, as well as with people right here on earth.

That morning as we went down while the invitation was extended in Sunday School (yep, back then the invitation was extended in Sunday School, as well as in worship), I remember being asked if I believed Jesus was God’s Son?  Yes.  Do you believe Jesus died for all your sins and to restore you to right relationship with God?  Yes.  Do you want to be a Christian?  Yes.  I remember speaking my affirmation that was something like this, Jesus, I trust you to be my personal Savior.  Did I KNOW what I was saying?  I believe I did as much as a 7-year-old can.  Then, I imagine it was probably a trust like I had for my parents and grandparents and teachers and preachers and adult neighbors. And as much as I loved reading and listening to stories back then, I knew this story of Jesus’ baptism was not just a story.  I knew that the story of Jesus’ baptism was a sign that I could trust Him with and in my own…

Last week’s post was focused on the Creator-God as the Faithful One.  This week’s post is about TRUSTING JESUS, which, I believe, is one very important response to the faithfulness of God.  What does it mean to TRUST Jesus? To put it simply, let it suffice to say, TRUST in Jesus means that we have TOTAL CONFIDENCE in Him. As the years have progressed, the sweetness of trusting Jesus has become a fundamental reality in my life.  And, I have realized also, that Jesus (The Triune God) is the ONLY ONE in Whom we can place TOTAL CONFIDENCE! Sweet! (Let’s be clear about what we are talking about when we say sweet in relationship to this song and to Jesus.  Synonymous words like: the MOST delightful, the MOST pleasant, the MOST satisfying, are the very BEST that come to mind).

You see, God has called me to do things that are far greater than my abilities–and because He called me, I have learned that I can depend on Him to empower me with everything I need to accomplish His purposes for my life.  If that awareness ain’t sweet, then fat meat ain’t greasy! (LOL) And not only is the awareness sweet, so is the gift of trusting Him itself. It is sweet to have TOTAL CONFIDENCE IN THE ONLY ONE WHO IS FAITHFUL! 

THE ORIGIN OF ‘TIS SO SWEET TO TRUST IN JESUS:  How fitting that a missionary should write this hymn about faith and trust. Louisa M. R. Stead was born about 1850 in Dover, England, and became a Christian at age nine. She felt a burden to become a missionary in her teenage years. When she was 21 or so, she immigrated to the United States and attended a revival meeting in Urbana, Ohio. There the Lord deeply impressed her with a ringing missionary call. She made plans to go to China, but her hopes were dashed when her health proved too frail for the climate there. Shortly afterward, she married a man named Stead. But sometime around 1879 or 1880, Mr. Stead drowned off the coast of Long Island. Some accounts say that he saved a boy who was drowning, and other accounts say both Mr. Stead and the boy perished. Other records suggest it was his own four-year-old daughter, Lily, that he saved. In any event, the family’s beach-side picnic ended in tragedy for Louisa. Shortly afterward, taking little Lily, Louisa went to South Africa as a missionary, and it was there during those days she wrote, ‘‘’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus.’’ Louisa served in South Africa for fifteen years, and while there she married Robert Wodehouse. When her health forced a return to America, Robert pastored a local Methodist Church. In 1900, her health restored, Robert and Louisa attended a large missionary conference in New York, and were so enthused by the experience they again offered themselves as missionary candidates. They arrived as Methodist missionaries in Rhodesia on April 4, 1901. ‘‘In connection with this whole mission there are glorious possibilities,’’ she wrote. ‘‘One cannot in the face of the peculiar difficulties help saying, ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ but with simple confidence and trust we may and do say, ‘Our sufficiency is of God.’ ’’ Louisa retired in 1911, and passed away in 1917; but her daughter, Lily, married missionary D. A. Carson and continued the work for many years at the Methodist mission station in southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).  (Morgan, Robert, Then Sings My Soul: 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, 2003)

HOW THIS SONG HAS SHAPED MY LIFE

‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word,
Just to rest upon His promise
And to know thus saith the LORD.

By now you are aware that a good part of my journey has been riddled with challenge, struggle and disappointment.  But ‘somehow’ those things have not been able to define me.  ALL BECAUSE somewhere in the depth of my being, no matter, how minute, there has been that simple, childlike, sweet trust in Jesus.  It was so infantile that even lacking understanding of how His Word came to be bound in a book (a persistent question I had as a child), I have found that Word to be totally trustworthy.  Because of that, even in times of doubt, I have found it to be quite natural to rest on His promises; something I guess I learned from my grandmother. Remember her example from an earlier post, reaching for the Word throughout the day, as though it was God communicating with and to her. She found her rest in His promises and now I’m finding more and more of mine there these days, as well.

Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
And in simple faith to plunge me
‘Neath the healing, cleansing flood!

I believe the childlike understanding of believer’s baptism finds its affirmation in this verse.  Simply trusting the power of His blood to cleanse one from sin; to have an uncomplicated faith that would cause me to follow my Savior in baptism; later on the journey learning that He has thoroughly healed and cleansed me by that precious blood, which was part of the symbolism at my baptism.

Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and peace.

I came to Jesus as a clueless little seven-year-old, but somewhere deep inside I believed He came to save me from my ‘sin’ and to give me life and rest and joy and peace.  On this journey, I have had times of sinfulness, lifelessness, total unrest and times of joylessness and total chaos.  Today, as a senior person, I can attest that I know Him to be the One who saves me from my sin and even from myself; I know Him as my Life-giver, my Haven, my Joy, my Peace–right in the midst of life’s storms. He is my All in All!

I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.

This verse is the verse that has brought to a greater understanding the words of Mrs. Stead as I have journeyed through this life, trusting my LORD.  Many circumstances, positive and negative, have helped to shape me into what I hope is becoming more and more a faithful servant-disciple of our LORD.  I AM so glad that I learned to trust Jesus and am learning to trust Him even more…grateful that I know Him as Savior and Friend…grateful that I know He will never, ever leave me…NEVER!  The Psalmist recorded these words that speak my heart today:  I have been young and now I am older, yet I have not seen the righteous abandoned or his children begging for bread.  Psalm 37:25 HCSB  (“er” in older is mine)

I have come a long way toward fully recognizing and appreciating the sweetness of trusting Jesus…the sweetness of life lived totally conscious and aware of His Presence, His power, His provision, and His protection.  That is especially true when I meditate on the scripture that I have known from a child, as well.  Eugene Peterson, in the Message Paraphrase says it None like this: Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track (Proverbs 3:5-6).  There was no greater time of reliance on this admonition than when God called me to ordained ministry.  No elders in my family could or would affirm my call.  I wanted their approval so badly, however, they contended that it was “wrong for a woman to preach.”  Because of the trust relationship that had developed between Jesus and me via the Holy Spirit…rather than leaning on the resource of my elders (which I had always done, especially in important matters), I listened to the One Who had created and called me; I acknowledged Him as Supreme Director of my life.  After much prayer, reluctance, discernment, with much fear and trembling, I finally came to say an emphatic YES to my LORD!  And I must share that I had the privilege of seeing Him work acceptance of His way in the hearts of each of those elders before they returned to Him.  Today, I shudder to think how empty my life would be had I not gone against the grain and obediently answered His call!  How many opportunities I would have missed!  How void of the many wonderful relationships I have been blessed to form! The numerous times God used this simple (oftentimes clueless) ragamuffin vessel to be a transformative voice or witness in the midst of a variety of situations!  Sweet!

I declare, God can be trusted!

The refrain of our hymn says:

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er;
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

What I can tell you today is this…in this life, there will be times when you feel like you cannot go on…matter of fact, you may feel like you do not WANT to go on.  I am a witness, no matter how hard the trial, how tough the challenge, how dark the hour…it is sweet to trust in Jesus… Trusting Him frees me from worry about ANY and EVERY thing…I’m just seeking grace to TRUST HIM EVEN MORE!

You know what I have found that makes trusting Jesus so sweet?  When life, from a human vantage point, is at its very worse, if I will take a deep breath and exhale…and simply whisper a reminder to myself and a prayer to my LORD…LORD, I trust YOU with the whole of my life!  I guarantee a sweetness and a calm will encompass you, and before you realize it, your perspective will be different.

Why don’t you try it right now…