My wife went to a ladies retreat a few days ago in a city she has been to before, but like me, she has not been there enough to know her way around.  That was not a big problem, though, and she did what I would have done if I had been driving—she used the navigation app on her cell phone.  That should have been the solution, but she said it kept sending her in the wrong direction.  I understand the feeling; when those things work well they are wonderful, but when they direct you to a peanut field or to a location where the pavement ends it gives the urge to sling the thing out the window.  Thankfully she got things back on track, reached her destination safely, and had a great and refreshing time.

When something works correctly only part of the time, it cannot be fully trusted at any time.  It always leaves questions about its dependability.

I recall many years ago when I often used one of my granddaddy’s tractors to do my garden work.  The plot I worked then was quite a bit bigger than the one I work now, so it was nice to have access to his equipment.  It was an old rusty M Farmall that had spent a lot of hours in the field.  I did not mind it being old or rusty, but the problem was getting it started.  The battery was usually weak which meant I had to resort to using the hand crank to get it started.  I didn’t mind that so much either, but at times it would kick back really hard.  That was no fun.  Needless to say, the old tractor was not very dependable and it was not unusual for me to spend more time trying to get it started than it took to do the cultivating I needed to do.

Dealing with gadgets and equipment that are not dependable create inconveniences but in the end we usually figure out some way to overcome it so that life is not permanently marred.  But when it comes to eternal matters of the soul, we cannot afford to trust in that which is not dependable; we need a totally reliable source in which to plant our faith.  Without a doubt, God is that Source of truth that we can trust in under all circumstances of life.

During the day of King David in the Old Testament, the king was experiencing great victories and he was seeing the hand of God at work in his life and in the nation of Israel.  In response, he acknowledged the dependability of God and His Word.  In one of David’s prayers the king stated, “O Sovereign Lord, You are God!  Your words are trustworthy, and You have promised these good things to Your servant”  (2 Samuel 7:28, New International Version).

Much earlier in David’s life and long before he became king, we find that his confidence that he could always trust God was already an important part of his life.  In the account of David confronting and defeating Goliath—the giant from Gath who was over nine feet tall–, we are given a clear picture of one who fully trusted God because he was convinced that God was fully trustworthy.  1 Samuel 17 gives the full account; one of the details that speaks of David’s confidence that God would come through for him is found in verse 48:  “As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.”  As a result of his depending on the trustworthiness of God, David was used to bring great victory to God’s people and much honor to God.

David worded it well in Psalm 19:7:  “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.  The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.”  We can rest at ease with the assurance that God is always dependable; He is trustworthy—100 % of the time.