Pour Out Your Heart
By Sharon Betters
Today’s Treasure
Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah
Psalm 62:8
I love watching God transform David from misery to mercy to ministry. The earth shifted beneath David’s feet in the worst possible way. His beloved son, Absalom, intentionally betrays him, gathering around him a growing army willing to take down God’s anointed King. His own son! When David turns to his inner circle and trusted friends for help, he learns that they have joined Absalom in his quest for the throne. David does not know who he can trust, except for one. David trusts God. We watch as David’s repeated declaration that God is His Rock, Rest, Rescue, and Refuge steadies him from being “greatly shaken” to “not shaken”. We see him identify the root cause of his fear and his recognition that his enemies are like a tottering wall. They will not succeed.
David warns readers not to trust anything except God, our Rock, Rest, Rescue, and Refuge.
David knows his audience. He knows he is speaking to hurting people, fearful of the future, unsettled by current events. He knows they are not where he is and he shares the secret of moving from fear to faith:
Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah
Psalm 62:8
Don’t miss the practical instruction from David that prepares us to trust God in the darkness. Trusting God is not just for tough times. David calls on us to experience trusting God every minute of every day, whether the day is dark or bright. Imagine how your day could change from mundane and ordinary, to extraordinary, if you have a constant awareness of God and His love demonstrated through His son, Jesus. When trusting God in the mundane is our habit, trusting Him when the earth shifts beneath our feet becomes our auto response. Bad times invite our trust, but what about prosperous times? Are we intentional about acknowledging God’s blessings and how we can steward them for His glory? What difference would it make if you saw all your moments as an opportunity to trust God? Would you treat the cashier differently, give of your financial gifts more generously, intentionally offer help and hope to a hurting friend?
I recently watched my husband, Chuck deal with weeks of an inefficient and incompetent banking process. The left hand did not know what the right hand was doing. He repeatedly sent the same documents to every new person in the process, even though they were all on the same team and from our perspective should have been sharing all information. You’ve been there, I’m sure.
I listened to numerous phone conversations where the incompetence fed my impatience and I imagined my own voice rising with every silly request. I kept waiting for Chuck to lose his temper. From my perspective he would have been righteous in doing so! Instead, he kindly and calmly interacted with each person. He expressed his frustration but in a way that evoked sympathy, not anger. I applauded his ongoing and consistent kindness in the middle of frustrating and unnecessary incompetence, telling him I could not exhibit such patience. He said, “I want everyone I work with to remember me as kind, not angry and mean spirited. It’s an opportunity to reflect Jesus, who knows if someone in this mess needs to see Him in me.”
His words hit the target of my heart, because I wanted to tell someone off. I know Chuck better than anyone, and I knew God was growing sweet fruit in his life designed to feed others with love and gentleness. This is a great example of pursuing trust in the Lord in the mundane, not for our convenience but for God’s glory. Read that sentence again. Sometimes, actually every time the earth shifts beneath our feet, God’s glory must be our ultimate goal. Many times our circumstances will not shift, our grief will not abate, and our pain will not ease, no matter how many times we declare God as our Rock, Rest, Rescue, and Refuge. David’s son Absalom still pursued him. David lost his beloved son in war. His circumstances got worse. Yet, for God’s glory, he declares that he will trust God, his deliverer.
LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT
Likewise, David encourages readers to trust in the Lord at all times. He recognizes that this will be hard because he follows that command with another exhortation: to “pour out our hearts before the Lord.”
Let that word “pour” capture your imagination. Pour out, don’t hold back one drop of your anxiety, fears, anger, grief, disappointment. Don’t leave one drop in your heart. In other Psalms we watch David do just that. He laments before the Lord holding nothing back. David knew from God’s response to his own lament, that we can trust Him to hold us tightly in our grip when we pour out our broken hearts because He is our refuge, our safe place.
In the middle of betrayal and a shattered heart, God brings good to David’s life. He teaches David to trust Him as his Rock, Rest, Rescue, and Refuge. David experiences mercy that moves through his misery into ministering to others.
Are you struggling to trust the Lord at all times? Pour out your heart to our God, our Refuge.
Sharon W. Betters is author of Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness and co-author of Treasures of Faith. She is Director of Resource Development and co-founder of MARKINC.org, a non profit organization that offers help and hope to hurting people. Sharon enjoys quality time with her husband, children and fourteen grandchildren.
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Contact Sharon with comments or questions at dailytreasure@markinc.org.