By Dennis Pollock
In the 56th Psalm, David writes:
In God I have put my trust;
I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me? (Psalm 56:11)
Good question! David seems to be almost ridiculing the idea that evil men and enemies could successfully bring harm to him. And King David was aware of the men who sought to bring him down. From his youth to his old age, David was often in danger of losing his life. In his early days, it was the giant, Goliath; then it was King Saul, and later there were constant battles with the Philistines and a coup by his own son, Absalom. If anyone knew about men trying to destroy him, David surely did. And yet here he asks, “What can man do to me?”
The reason David could take this confident attitude is found in the first part of this verse. David says: “In God I have put my trust.” David associated his trust in God with an assurance that all the schemes of evil men would never succeed against him. He felt that trust in God was a solid reason to expect safety and security in life. He had trusted – God would surely protect him.
What About Us?
Is there a need for Christians today to do as David did – to put their trust in God for protection? Of course there is. The question I want to take up in this study is: “How.” How, exactly, do we put our trust in God? What do we do? What are the specifics of how it works when a man or a woman puts their trust in God? Is this trust just automatic for Christians today? Or are there certain things we can do that will enhance our trust and will release God’s protection and grace to work for our defense? Most of us do not have literal enemies trying to kill us, as David often did. We often have challenges, crises, health scares, financial calamities, and potentially failing relationships, which threaten to swallow us. We have our own enemies, and they are no less scary to us than David’s enemies were to him. So how do we “put our trust in God?” Is there anything we can do to enhance our trust?
There are indeed things we can and must do to enlist God as our Defender and be able to say: “What can man (or demons or challenges) do to me?” First, we must pray. We cannot simply assume that because we are God’s children through faith in Jesus, we can ignore our challenges, and they will go away on their own. James writes, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.” (James 5:13). When our life or health or well-being is threatened, it is time to pray. This is the time we pour our hearts out to the Lord and tell Him exactly what is going on in our lives and look to Him out for positive intervention. Of course, He already knows what is happening, far more than we do, but it is always right to pour out our hearts and our situations to the Lord.
When King Hezekiah received a threatening letter from the king of Israel’s enemy, the Bible tells us:
Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. Then Hezekiah prayed before the LORD… (2 Kings 19:14-15)
“Do You See This?”
It seems like Hezekiah was saying, “Look at this, LORD. Here is the threatening letter this wicked man has sent to me!” In one sense, Hezekiah did not really need to spread that letter before the Lord. God knew every word of it. He knew when it was written, He knew who wrote it, and He knew the arrogance of the heart of that enemy king. But Hezekiah needed, for his own sake, to make the matter known to the Lord before he could begin praying for deliverance and victory, which he, in fact, received. And sometimes we also need to go into detail and tell God exactly what we are facing. But we cannot stop there. As with Hezekiah, after rehearsing our issue to our Heavenly Father, then we must pray.
We call on the Lord to defend us, protect us, provide for us, and bring an end to our terrible ordeal. We may go on quite long in beseeching the Lord for mercy and a breakthrough. There is nothing wrong with this. The great heroes of the Bible did this very eloquently. But at some point, there must be a kind of pivot, where we go from begging and imploring to praising and making faith declarations. If this does not happen, all we end up with is a begging session, and this will not get the job done. Remember, in the verse we began with David said, ” In God I have put my trust…” He doesn’t say, “I have begged God over and over.” He says, “In God I have put my trust.”
We often say that God answers prayer, but that is not quite the whole story. The truth is, God answers prayers of faith, utterances aimed toward our Heavenly Father that include both petitions and faith declarations. We cannot merely say, “God, I am in trouble. Please help me, please, please, please help me.” We say, “God, I am in trouble, please help me. And I thank you for helping me, because your word says, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” (Isaiah 54:17). And your word promises, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19). And Jesus has told us, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.” (John 16:23).
The Power of Believing Prayer
Here is where the power is – not just in prayer, but in mixing faith with prayer. We call on the LORD; we tell Him our situation and fervently ask Him to intervene. And then we praise Him and remind Him of His amazing promises. It is not as though He has forgotten His promises, of course. But as we remind God of His promises and claim those promises for ourselves, we are reminding ourselves of those promises and building our faith. A pile of wood cannot create a fire of itself. It must have a spark, a flame of some kind, to turn potential energy into a real fire. And our prayers must be lit with the flame of Holy Spirit-inspired faith for them to bring about the results we desire.
So, the next time you are in a crisis, talk to the Lord about it. Spend some quality time in prayer, beseeching the Lord for divine mercies. But don’t forget to mingle faith and the promises of God with your petitions. Prayer with faith is a dynamite combination, and you just might be surprised at what God will do for you when you petition the Father in the name of His crucified and resurrected Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and mingle those petitions with faith.
