Trusting God in the Frizz

Welcome to the Weekly Taming of the Frizz. For background info, see here.

Mr. Curly and I have struggled greatly with the different perceptions of trusting God.

• Some people take the Tommy Boy approach "I'm God's kid, so it's ok if I'm an idiot, I'll call it trusting God and everything will be ok."
• Some people take the Benjamin Franklin approach "God helps those who help themselves, so I won't bother asking His guidance in this area, I'll just take care of it and God will be glad I'm self-sufficient."
• And then there is the middle - Some people trust God to take care of them even when they are idiots and make mistakes, and yet attempt to be responsible about their situations.

Mr. Curly and I try to be the middle ground.

This attempt to be responsible has led to a holding pattern in many areas that I wish were moving forward. I was complaining about it and said "God said he'd give us the desires of our heart!"

I thought maybe I should know the whole verse, just in case I missed something.

It turns out I did.

The full verse says: "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4 - are you surprised it is a Psalm? Neither am I.

I'm not sure I've done much delighting in the Lord lately. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've done more grumbling TO the Lord.

So I'm challenging myself to live out this Psalm for the rest of the week (especially the words in bold):

Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.
Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret - it leads only to evil.
For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.

Psalm 37:1-9