You Control Where You Entrust Your Life: Commit Your Way to the LORD

Controlling what You Can
in this Uncontrollable World

Part 7

You Control Where You Entrust Your Life: Commit Your Way to the LORD

The world around you may be out of your control, but you can still thrive when you choose to control what you can. You, and you alone, control yourself. As we continue to follow David’s instruction in Psalm 37, remember…

Only you can control:
Your Foundation: the LORD is in Control
Your Focus: Fret not. Trust in the LORD
Your Actions: Do Good
Your Mindset: Dwell in the Land
Your Thoughts: Feed on the LORD’s Faithfulness
Where You Seek Happiness: Delight in the LORD

You also control where you entrust your life.

:5 “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act.”

Do you have trouble entrusting an important project to someone else? I do. I’m afraid they won’t share my vision or commitment to excellence. They might bungle up something that’s very important to me, so I tend to cling to the project myself. I sometimes do that with my life, too. While I would never think or say that the LORD is not trustworthy, I kind of live that way when I cling to my version of life and demand things to go my way — which is always the most blissful and dreamlike way. The trouble is, that’s not what this life is. Bliss and perfection are in my future home of heaven—for eternity. But, not today. Oh, we have promises for today that will bring us that settled happiness we’ve already addressed, and we have wonderful and beautiful aspects to this life, but it’s not a continual life of comfort and bliss on paradise island. So, I can choose to tightly cling to my life, trying desperately to arrange and rearrange things to suit my dreams (this usually includes a good does of whining and grumbling), or I can commit my way to the LORD, Who, as we’ve discussed, is working a great plan in my difficulties. He is trustworthy. His ways are perfect—not painless, but perfect.

David committed his way to the LORD. He trusted Him, and the LORD did act on his behalf. He acted on his behalf along the way, establishing his steps in the pain; and He acted on his behalf when it was time to end Saul’s reign and bring David into the promised kingship. Do take a moment to remember that even at this point in David’s life, there were still struggles. There are no phases of this life in which we do not need to commit our way to the LORD, and trust Him. This is not a once-and-done concept. It’s a daily, minute by minute choice we must make.

:6 “He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.”

As I choose to do good and trust the LORD, He will let my right living shine forth to others. The LORD acted by putting Saul and his army into a deep sleep. David chose to do good by sparing Saul’s life, and in doing so, the LORD displayed David’s righteousness to Saul and his men. For a time, Saul went home. This didn’t end David’s unfair exile, but it did display his righteousness.

Daniel chose to do good and it got him a trip to the lion’s den. His settled approach to this situation is evidence that he committed his way to the LORD. The LORD acted on his behalf, spared his life, and the king saw Daniel’s righteousness. Take a minute now to look around at the details of this story though: the other leaders never appreciated Daniel’s righteousness (of course, they did end being thrown to the lions themselves); Daniel’s good choices didn’t end all of his difficulties — he was still in Babylon away from family and home. God did a great miracle in delivering Daniel from the lions, but he didn’t extract him from his life in a foreign land. God had a plan for him there.

Also note: Not everyone will see or acknowledge your righteous living. But as you choose to commit your way to the LORD, He will act on your behalf, and your righteousness will shine. The success does not lie in the acknowledgment of others, but in the actual choice to do good and commit your way to the LORD. We see this clearly demonstrated in the life of Christ. Jesus is the perfect example of righteousness. While His righteousness was acknowledged by many, He was also misjudged, maligned, and hated by others. If the perfect Son of God faced reproach in His perfect life, my flawed self can expect nothing less. It is mine to choose to do good and commit the rest to the LORD. He will act.

So this week, focus on committing your way to the LORD:
Are you clinging to your dreamlike plans today?
Commit your way to Him throughout the day, whenever you feel yourself pulling life back into the imagined safety of your own hands. It’s not safe with you. It’s safe with the LORD. 

You can thrive in this crazy world when you choose to commit your way to the LORD. Trust Him. He will act.