No Decision Alone

Songs of the Church Devotion for September 13, 2021

?“If Thou but Trust in God to Guide Thee” stanza 7

?“Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving, Perform thy duties faithfully, And trust His Word; though undeserving, Thou yet shalt find it true for thee. God never yet forsook in need The soul that trusted Him indeed.”

?This stanza is one of my favorites.?I am the kind of person who came make a decision and then afterwards doubt the decision, wonder if I made the right decision… if I am doing the right thing.?I get what I like to call “buyer’s remorse.”?Why??Because of my doubts about myself… my own insecurities.?I make mistakes, lots of them, and I know it.

This stanza, indeed, this hymn, has always been a great reminder that I don’t have to make those decisions alone.?Instead of looking to myself – I can look to Him.?I can “sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving, perform my duties faithfully, and trust His Word…”?In other words, commit my way to the Lord.?Seek Him.?Every day asking that He would put to death in me selfishness and pride, self-pity and stubbornness, anything that would keep me from following Him. When I face a difficult decision resist my natural urge to just rush in.?Instead ask Him for patience and wait for Him to show me the next right choice.?I am always surprised how doing nothing and instead waiting on His guidance has always been the right way.

Don’t get me wrong.?I have not always waited.?I have often rushed in to go my own way. I have often made the wrong choice.?But even then, He has stuck with me.?Like the writer of this hymn, I have found this to be absolutely true that “God never yet forsook in need the soul that trusted Him indeed.”

So slow down.?Stop. ?Sing and pray. Wait on Him.?After all, (to go back to the first stanza) “If thou but trust in God to guide thee and hope in Him through all thy ways, He’ll give thee strength, whate’er betide thee, and bear thee through the evil days. Who trusts in God’s unchanging love builds on the rock that naught can move.”