‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus / Louisa M.R. Stead / William J. Kirkpatrick
’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Thee!
How I’ve proved Thee o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Thee more!
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Mark 9:2-13 (key v. 7):
The Transfiguration
2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
7 Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.
11 And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”
12 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 13 But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”
My Understanding: As I was reading this passage of scripture, v. 7 really jumped out at me, particularly God the Father’s words to Jesus’ disciples: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” On Thursday evening of this past week, when I was reading Mark 6, these words of Jesus to his disciples stood out to me: “You give them something to eat.” And, yesterday, when I was reading Mark 8, these words of Jesus, again to his disciples, called out to me: “Do you still not understand?” All three of these statements, one by God the Father and two by Jesus Christ, God the Son, are emphatic statements, i.e. “definite; insistent; absolute; adamant; resolute; and imperative – vital; crucial; essential; urgent; and necessary” (MS Word Thesaurus). And, all three statements were directed to Jesus’ disciples. And, these are still God’s words to his (Jesus’) followers today.
I have often found that when something comes in sets of three that I should sit up and take notice. Jonah was in the belly of the big fish 3 days and 3 nights. Jesus was in the grave 3 days and 3 nights. Peter denied Jesus 3 times and then reaffirmed his love for Jesus 3 times. Peter’s vision of the unclean food was given to him 3 times before he finally began to understand what God was showing him, and even then his understanding was not complete until he stepped out in faith on what he did understand, and then the pieces began to come together. Our God is also a triune being – Father, Son & Holy Spirit. God’s divine attributes are three-fold – omniscient (all knowing), omnipresent (everywhere present) and omnipotent (all powerful). Matthew 22:37 says: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Heart, soul and mind are also three-fold. So, not only are these three statements of God the Father and of Jesus Christ, God the Son, emphatic statements in and of themselves, but the fact that they have jumped out at me now in a set of three just puts all the more emphasis upon them that they are indeed imperative – “vital; crucial; essential; urgent; and necessary.”
’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”
This is just the first stanza of this song. I did not quote the entire song because I felt as though this stanza contained the message the Lord wanted me to receive and to share today. If we truly take Jesus at His Word, what does that really mean? It means to believe what he says, that it is valid and that it is true. I read this definition of “to take someone at his word” at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/word – “To be convinced of another's sincerity and act in accord with his or her statement.” I believe that this understanding is essential. To take Jesus at his word, i.e. to believe what he says, that it is valid and true, means to act in accordance with what we say we believe Jesus has said. So, if Jesus says “You give them something to eat,” then we should do that, i.e. to feed the hungry physically as well as spiritually. If he says, “Do you still not understand?” then we should seek his face to see what it is that we don’t yet understand. And, if God the Father says “This is my Son, whom I love, listen to him!” then we should listen to him and do what he says.
So, that begs the question, “What does it truly mean to listen to someone?” Encarta dictionary says: “to concentrate on hearing somebody or something; to pay attention to something and take it into account.” One of the thesaurus words for listen was “heed” – “to give serious attention to a warning or advice and take it into account when acting; serious attention paid to somebody or to something such as a warning, piece of advice, or request” (Encarta Dictionary). So, to listen means to pay attention, to take what is said seriously, and to take it into account when acting. Again, here is the word “acting,” not in the sense of performing, but in the sense of our actions following suit with what we say we believe.
Proverbs 10:17: He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.
Proverbs 15:32: He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.
Proverbs 16:20: Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.
These passages in Proverbs make clear, I believe, that to listen, i.e. to heed means more than just paying attention to what is said, but it means to respond to what is said in a way that involves change in one’s behavior, thoughts, deeds, and words, etc. It means to hear what is being said, to give careful, thoughtful and serious consideration to what was expressed, and then to act upon what is heard in a manner appropriate to the words spoken. So, to listen means to heed, and to heed means to do something about what you just heard:
Mark 4:20: “Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.”
Luke 8:21: He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”
Luke 11:28: He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
So, when God the Father said to Jesus’ disciples, “This is my Son, whom I love, listen to him!” what he meant was obey his words, put them into practice, and produce a crop.
Luke 8:15: But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
Jesus is saying the same to us, his followers, today. God is telling us to listen to His Son, i.e. to not only hear the Word Jesus has spoken to us, his followers, but to retain the Word, obey the Word, put the Word into practice, and by preserving the Word in our lives, then produce a crop, i.e. bear fruit that is evidence that we have listened, obeyed and put His Word into practice in our daily lives.
Mark 8:17-18: Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?...”
Hebrews 3:7-10:
So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the desert,
9 where your fathers tested and tried me
and for forty years saw what I did.
10 That is why I was angry with that generation,
and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
Revelation 2:7: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
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