But...
'... BUT'
During one of the severe potato famines in Ireland, a number of families wrote letters to their landlord saying they had absolutely no money at all to pay their rent and begged to be let off all their debts. The Irish landlord was Canon Andrew Robert Fausset, born near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, in 1821.
Canon Fausset wrote back to his tenants. He said it was quite impossible to let them off their debts. It would set a bad precedent. They had to pay every single penny.
‘But,’ he wrote, ‘I enclose something that might help you.’ In contrast to so many of the other landlords at the time, he sent a check for a very large sum of money – which far more than covered all their debts.
Their hearts must have leapt with joy when they saw the word ‘but’. ‘But’ is a powerful word when facing trouble, tests, and temptations.
In trouble… ‘BUT I trust in you’
Psalm 31:9-18
No one can go through life without facing troubles. If David’s example is anything to go by, anyone in a position of leadership will face more than most.
David was in trouble: ‘with grief my eye is weakened, also my inner self and my body’ (v.9b, AMP). He was facing spiritual, mental, and physical challenges.
He faced ‘distress’, ‘sorrow’, ‘grief’, ‘anguish’, ‘groaning’, ‘affliction’, illness, ‘enemies’, ‘contempt’ from his neighbours, brokenness, ‘terror’, conspiracy, and plots (v.9–13).
Still, in the midst of all this, he is able to say, ‘But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hands’ (v.14–15a). He trusts in God’s ‘unfailing love’ (v.16). Sometimes, when things are going wrong, it is hard to believe that God really does love you. But he does. David cries out for help because he trusts that God will deliver him.
It is in the tough times that the object in which you trust is really put to the test. But, as Henry Ford wrote, ‘When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it!’ Trust that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
