Psalm 37:3-6 English Standard Version

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.

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

Ripley collected a number of oddities that were unbelievable and challenged us to believe it or not. His challenge was one of curiosity. Whether we believe it or not holds no sway over our lives.

Trust is fundamental to faith. It says the Lord is right and His counsels are just and if we walk by faith all will bring forth blessings which we cannot obtain on our own, His promises.

Trust allows us to act in a manner that we might not choose for ourselves because we made a choice to place our faith in Jesus Christ. That act changed the course of our life.

Yet these words were penned long before the birth of Christ and it seems it should have been true for the people of those days and not just those of us that are living now in the church age.

When we read the bible we will discover that Enoch walked with God and pleased God even before the flood. Nothing is said about how Enoch achieved that amazing feat. We can believe it because God said it, even if we do not understand it.

The Shepherd and the Stone of Israel were mentioned in Jacob’s blessing over his sons which were mentioned under Joseph not Judah which is the bloodline of Jesus. We might not understand why that was the order presented but we can trust that it was not a mistake even if we think it out of order.

Trust and obedience are not predicated on understanding, believe it or not.

Our understanding will change as more and more truth is revealed to us by He who is True.

Faith remains unchanged even if we do not act on it, believe it or not.

Our actions are still a matter of free will and our will does change, believe it or not.

Faith is not a religion, believe it or not.

Luke 10:21 English Standard Version (ESV) In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

Daniel 7:8 English Standard Version (ES) I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

I grew up reading the King James Version. I remember verses in the KJV. I write in the user-friendly English Standard Version because like the KJV it is free of copyright restrictions and I can use it as much as I like without violating their rules.

I was thinking of using “he who is faithful in little is faithful in much” and search in the ESV language and these two great verses appeared. I do not want to call this a happy accident, but this happens often during my searches.

Do I go with my original thoughts or do I continue with what I see in the search results?

I am struck with the words “such was your gracious will”. The footnote expanded the understanding to announce it please God well.

Which of the two opening verses pleases us to discover them in a bible search which resulted in important and interesting verses that were unexpected?

This is not a matter of which verse is more important but rather which one is “eye-catching” to the individual? We might see the unexpected results as a happy accident or a distraction. It is even possible to discover the results are convicting our souls. 

My experiences find me paying attention to things that are “eye-catching” things because some of them have led me to God’s gracious blessings.

Now these two pening verses have profound messages that have nothing to do with each other. Which one is pleasing to our personalities and which one is God’s gracious will?

No one can answer that question for another person. God is personal with His gracious will and what works for one individual may not work for anyone else.

There are multiple messages today. Which one connects to you as a reader is for you to decide. If nothing connects with you, that is acceptable also.