THE HEDGE: Courageous Trust in God’s Sovereignty

I really love Joab. He’s probably not your favorite character from the David stories in the Old Testament, but he’s pretty high up on my list. He’s one of a handful of people who stood up to King David when he needed to hear hard things (see II Sam. 19:1-8).

Joab was the commander of David’s army, and at one point, Joab and his brother, Abishai, were surrounded by Ammonites on one side and Syrians on the other. He told his brother: “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him” (II Sam. 10:11-12 ESV).

What an interesting way to consider courage. Joab told his brother to take courage, yet he acknowledged that the Lord was free to do what seemed good to Him. In our modern times, we might say something like: “Let’s take courage, and the Lord will do what we want Him to do,” but that would also be an inaccurate way of restating Joab’s words.

Look closely. “Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems right to him.” That is how the people of God should live — resting in courageous trust in God’s sovereignty. The Lord will do what He pleases, and we can be courageous by resting in the reality that He is in control. That has been immensely encouraging to me this month.

As we seek to share the gospel, disciple and mobilize students, I want assurance that everything will work out. I want God to tell me He will make all these things wildly prosperous. I want to know success is at hand. But that’s not how sovereignty works. God’s sovereignty works more like what Joab envisioned. We go with courage to the task ahead of us, and we trust that God will do what is pleasing to Him. That shouldn’t come as any surprise to us because it is the very nature of faith — trusting in the grace of God.

I needed to hear that and remember that this month. We are trying to be different than we have been in the past, and I believe courageously so, but we should not think we are in charge of the outcome. “Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people... and may the Lord do what seems right to him.”

The Lord will do what seems right to Him, and in His hands, His glory will increase into all eternity. That seems like a thing worthy of all the courage I can muster. That’s what I see when I look back on the last month at The Hedge.

• Fish Fry and Axe Throwing — I know, that sounds like the start to a good country song, but it was actually an event we hosted last week at The Hedge! The students and I are trying to work more events like this into the schedule so we have opportunities to invite people who might feel uncomfortable with a worship service and teaching. We want to be able to invite those who may have no experience with the church scene to The Hedge so we can build relationships with them. I’m happy to say we had about 10 new faces who had never been to The Hedge before. Introductions lead to relationships that lead to gospel conversations!

• Prayer Requests — Please join us in praying for courage to initiate gospel conversations, wisdom for discipling student laborers and more laborers in the harvest.