“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.”  Psalm 56:3

A few posts ago, we met Will and Put.  “Will” represents our willingness, our decision making process, that propels us towards what we want or need.  But Will doesn’t act alone as sometimes decisions, by themselves, are just the start of what we hope will come to be.  “Put”, the “put” we find in Psalm 56:3, is the driving force or effect that moves our decisions forward or backward.  In a way, it is the “effect” that goes with the “cause” of why we’ve decided something.

Will and Put work best when working together.  Will, by himself, thinks a lot and maybe even decides a lot, but alone, he’s not super effective.  You think I am kidding?  Many in this world would be thrilled if we could just “will” ourselves more healthy when we are sick, happy when we are sad, richer, thinner, prettier, and so on.  Many wish for world peace, unity and no more poverty or cancer.  But for most, willing something to be doesn’t usually change the situation.  Without Put (a concerted effort to bring that wish or decision), Will is just a pile of thoughts.

And Put–well, quite frankly–she will struggle immensely to find the right order, purpose or effect if she doesn’t have Will along in support.  She works hard, but without Will there to do his part, she gets lost in the why and what behind her efforts.  Imagine how ineffective and frustrating it must be for Put to continually try to bring about change, but have no Will to commit to it.  Over and over again, she tries, but it doesn’t stick, work or stay in place because where there is no willpower, there is no gain.

By design, we need Will and Put to be operating fully and correctly in our lives to effectuate the best decisions and actions.  When they are working and working well together, we will find that they will meet up with “In”–the very next word in Psalm 56:3: “I will put my trust IN…” (emphasis mine).  “In”, by a simple read, seems to be about a location, a specific spot.  We put refrigerated items in the refrigerator.  We park cars in a parking lot.  We live in homes or apartments.  We let the dog in.  We like to be in the “in” crowd.  As a result, “In” relates us to another space.  Let’s dig a bit into that word:

In

1. (used to indicate inclusion within a space);
2. (used to indicate inclusion within something abstract or immaterial);
3. …(used to indicate transition from one state to another).
4. …(on the inside; within).  http://www.dictionary.com/in/not citing all parts.

Since “inclusion” was mentioned in a couple of definitions, I went to see what word was all about.  Of course, it meant “the act of including or the state of being included.”  Id./inclusion.  In relation to Psalm 56:3, that is kind of interesting to think on.  When we are afraid, we need to include God in our thoughts.  Most of the time, our thoughts build and grow around that which is causing us fear–leaving little room for God or His strength or His comfort to build our faith bigger than our expanding feelings of being afraid.

What was intriguing about the root of inclusion was “a shutting in.”  Id./inclusion.  It then instructed the reader to see the word, “incluse.”  Not seeing that before, I followed along curious to see what the heck that word was about.  Funny thing, it was defined as “recluse”, which was the first thing to come to mind.  Again in its root reference was “to enclose or shut in.”

Recluse had a second definition that caught my attention: “Also incluse, a religious voluntary immured in a cave, hut or remaining in a cell for life.”  Id./recluse.  Again its roots lied in “shut up or close.”  Id.  Now, I had not seen the word “immure” before so I decided to unfold this a little further.

Immure [a verbal derivative of wall]:

1.  to enclose within walls;
2. to shut in; seclude or confine;
3. to imprison;
4. to build into or entomb in a wall;
5. Obsolete. to surround with walls; to fortify.  Id./immure.

To have walls around us does usually strengthen or protect us so that led me to dig further down by looking at the word, fortify:

Fortify [is rooted in strong]

1. to protect or strengthen against attack; surround or provide with defensive military works;
2. to furnish with the means of resisting force or standing wear;
3. to make strong; impart strength to;
4. to increase the effectiveness of;
5. to strengthen mentally or morally;
6. to confirm      Id./fortify

“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.”  When I am feeling disheartened, I will put my comfort in You.  When I am anxious, I will put my strength in You.  All of these things, whether trust, comfort or strength, will require an effort from us to put those things “in” God’s hands.  During this process, we may need to take measures to wall off fear and fortify our faith.  It is no small matter to give God such vulnerable and weighty parts of ourselves rather than relying on them for our rescue.

It is interesting to note that part of “in” is “used to indicate a transition from one state to another.”  Id./in.  Sometimes I hear people speak of faith as if it is easy to trust God, but that doesn’t seem to be the case when we look more fully at the word, in.  Could it be that by unfolding His words, He is showing us that there is a transition period between what triggered our fear and how we can get past it?  We start to feel afraid often because there’s something that has frightened us.  But according to the word in, we are not necessarily stuck there.  Isn’t that a beautiful comfort to know that we can transition out of fear and into trusting God through the aid of Will and Put?  We don’t have to live where fear dwells.  We are not required to keep fear, anxiety, dismay and all of fear’s friends in our hearts, minds or decisions.

Looking back at the roots of inclusion, incluse and recluse, all of them speak to “a shutting in”, shutting up or closing.  And that left me thinking maybe when we experience something that makes us afraid, we have to employ both Will and Put to shut ourselves off from growing what we fear while purposefully inviting God (through our trust, our comfort and our strengths) into the situation that is causing us trepidation.  Putting fear outside of our heart walls and enclosing God in.  Isn’t it in trials and tribulations that we feel the most fear?  And yet, so often His answer is “Do not be afraid.”  God wants us to trust in Him more in those frightening moments.

It is true.  We really do have a choice.  We can choose to put our trust in fear–believing all too willingly in the potential of the worst of what fear threatens.  We can choose to put our comfort in things that do little to alleviate our situation but bring us momentarily relief or distraction from our feelings.  We can choose to put our strength in fixing things ourselves without really knowing whether those strengths are the best fix, or if it is even something we can feasibly do.  But what we really need to do is ask:  Are these choices building our faith in God?  Those choices, rather, place our trust and lives directly into the hands of fear.

To build true faith in God, we have to make sure that our Will and Put are choosing and moving our trust, comfort and strength to the right place: in God.  It is crucial.  Fear is a master at trying to convince, through an assortment of feelings, that we need to believe in it more than God.  Let us no longer fall for putting our faith in anything else, and let us fortify our trust in God by making sure that is where our faith is truly located!

“Seek good, not evil, that you may live.  Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say He is.”  Amos 5:14