Majesty Addendum, by Jay Wegter
Isaiah 40:12-13 – Finely tuned parameters permit sustainable life.
14 – We learn by training, intuition, experience, and by trial and error. But, He knows in an entirely different way. He knows Himself infinitely, and then He makes the cosmos and everything in it. We are truly the thought of God. All truth is His truth, truth and wisdom have no existence of their own. God’s authority lies behind them.
Author Richard Weaver states that modern man assumes he has truth since he knows many facts. But facts are not the same thing as truth. Truth involve a system of seeing the world by which facts are identified, gathered, correlated and by which system conclusions are drawn. By way of example, it takes 365 days for the earth to travel around the sun one time. And our sun is 93 million miles away from earth. But the truth is about the goodness of God, His power, might, wisdom, and divine nature. That is the origin of this earth, sun arrangement which makes life possible. The force of truth believed is made clear in the reality of truth obeyed. Only those who obey the Son shall see life (Jn 3:36; 1 Jn 5:12). Only the doers of the Word are showing the force of truth in their lives. A high reverence for God produces high obedience and a low reverence for God produces low obedience.
15 – Would a minuscule drop of condensation on a bucket of cold water add to its perceptible weight to the human carrying it? The nations of the world and all they contain are like a speck of dust to Him, weightless.
16 -17 – All the false gods in the world are worshipped as finite and dependent deities that are to be placated, pacified and obligated. But, Yahweh cannot be pacified or made known by anything in the creation or anything the creature does. He does not define Himself by His creatures or by His creation.
18 – God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” The whole intent of Exodus 3:14 and further is that the Creator cannot be compared to anything in His creation. As His finite creatures, we are living in a time, space, matter continuum. During creation week, God called this triad into existence and He upholds it every moment. He is the uncaused cause of time, space and matter. These three had to come into existence at exactly the same time. Remove any of the three and there would be no cosmos. The origin of that triad cannot be from within that triad. Jonathan Edwards points out how absurd it is to suggest that God could lose control of the cosmos, or in stating it another way, that His intended purpose in making it to glorify Himself has been thwarted by human and angelic sin.
You might find yourself responding to these marvelous truths concerning our Creator with a statement such as this: “God’s majesty and sovereignty displayed in His works of creation and providence are truly breathtaking. But, what about my problems and distressing trials? Do I have any assurance that He will condescend to notice me and come to my aid? Of course the answer lies in the greatness of God’s heart. For, He did not withhold the greatest gift from undeserving sinners; He gave His only begotten Son for them. Scripture unfolds this unparalleled generosity: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things” (Rom 8:31-32).
The logic of heaven is in these verses. And, here it is: if God did not withhold His greatest gift, the Lord Jesus Christ, then all lesser gifts will follow if you have Christ. The gospel of Christ reveals that you do not have to overcome reluctance in God to bless His people. But, what we are called to do is to wait upon Him in trust and reliance, reviewing who He is toward us in Christ—namely infinitely generous.
Believers are secure because they serve a Covenant-making God
The true believer is in covenant with the infinite sovereign God whose goodness toward His own knows no bounds. Therefore, He makes His care of us predictable, (not capricious) in the sense that He has harnessed His mighty attributes and has pledged to exert and exercise them in the eternal interest of His people. His intent toward those who are in Christ is only infinite good. The Lord Jesus Christ, by His merits on their behalf, personally carries the eligibility for believing sinners to be secure, blessed and safe. Christ our ‘Surety’ our ‘Cosigner’ our Advocate is the core foundation of the new covenant.
What happens to our trust in God during difficulties?
But, as Isaiah chapter 40 brings out, there is a hitch in consistently believing in God’s sovereign care. For, there are frequent situations in which your faith must overcome appearances in order to not walk by sight. For circumstances we encounter often appear to contradict the promises of God. And if we subject the situation to our natural reasoning or even to common sense, we often will see no silver lining in our current trouble. The challenge during those seasons surrounds how we process the trouble, for the delays, suffering and pain which God permits do involve hurt. But, Scripture is clear that God will come through at a time and in a way that is likely different than our own. He often does so in a way which frustrates our schemes. But, He operates in a manner that is consistent with His infinite wisdom and goodness.
Why is it so easy to doubt amidst our pain?
The Word of God is utterly realistic concerning human experience with its pain and suffering. When relief seems perpetually out of reach, it can be distressing and discouraging. It says in Proverbs, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life” (Prov 13:12).
Amidst our difficulties, the most common way we demonstrate weakness in our trust is to doubt that God has made our problem a priority. In my heart, I am attempted to charge Him with forgetting about me, as if my Heavenly Father were practicing child neglect. When our distress is acute relief seems distant, we are tempted to doubt His care. But, Isaiah shows us the heart of God. “But Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.’ ‘Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you” (Is 49:14-15). This tender passage is a corrective.
From my puny perspective, this dishonoring of God’s character through doubt or murmuring proves to be a carnal attempt to cope with the negatives in my life. The solution is to wait upon God. But, this is a different kind of waiting than staring at your watch and just gutting it out. It is not like waiting at a bus stop for an overdue bus. Waiting on God involves a reverential recounting of His majesty.
And, as with the habit of the Psalmist there ought also to be a recitation of His past faithfulness that accompanies the exaltation of His character and attributes (Ps 77:11). His wisdom, loving kindness, perfections, and excellence are revealed in His providential care. Therefore, waiting on God is a rich synonym for faith and reliance, for waiting upon Him is inseparable from relying upon all that God is toward me in Christ. Waiting on God humbles my carnal thoughts of doing things my way in the interest of my demands and my plans.
Waiting on God is a spiritual discipline that is to be learned and practiced
During God’s apparent delays, it feels like His answers are late. Why does He make us wait? Why does He keep us waiting? There is actually unseen blessing taking place in our souls while we are consciously leveraged upon God. Waiting on Him is an ideal way for God to mortify our inveterate hunger for security through control. Waiting on God reaffirms in our minds who truly is in control. That is a reality we frequently need refreshed, but usually do not want.
Our carnal formula goes like this, “I am most secure when I am exercising the highest level of control over my life.” But, when God places us in a period of consciously waiting on Him, then we learn that true security is found in resignation to His all wise control. These are things that can only be learned by waiting on God.
We must note that when we are in a long tunnel of trouble, there will be a strong level of temptation to stop trusting and to start scheming. In Isaiah 50 we see a graphic contrast between those who trust God amidst trouble (even when they cannot ‘see’ a solution), and those who descend into ‘will worship’ and false religion. The contrast between them and their destinies cannot be greater. “Who is among you that fears the LORD, that obeys the voice of His servant, that walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with firebrands, walk in the light of your fire and among the brands you have set ablaze. This you will have from My hand: you will lie down in torment” (Is 50:10-11). In this passage there is a powerful negative metaphor of attempting to walk in one’s own light instead of God’s light.
Waiting on God cultivates ‘holy expectation’
Waiting upon the God of majesty is a powerful cure to our fear, uncertainty and doubt (Elmer FUD. Note that pastors in previous generations often wrote in their journals that their parishioners tended to live in a state of fear, uncertainty, and doubt.) Our proper alignment to His majesty is crucial in our Christian walk. Waiting upon the God of majesty is the alignment, or posture that He requires of us. The polar opposite of waiting on God is living in a state of perpetual doubt and double-mindedness. James targets this sinful posture as follows: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (Jas 1:5-8).
This is convicting isn’t it. We sometimes seek to protect ourselves from disappointment by trusting less, hoping less, and expecting little. God is not honored when we project upon Him our fears of non-blessing, as if He is stingy, stodgy and exasperating.
And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. “And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.” “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. ‘Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. ‘Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. “Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 25:24-30).
This should leave no doubt in our minds of how crucial it is that we think rightly about God. It also sheds a great deal if light upon why waiting upon God is such a vital grace or virtue. When we wait upon God, we are exalting His generosity; the greatness of His heart. And, therefore, this activity of waiting upon Him cultivates in us, ‘holy expectation’. Just as Joshua and Caleb in exercising holy expectation in God’s promises were able to see past the obstacles of the giants of Canaan and their fortified cities.
On the Last Day, God is going to publicly Display the Triumph of our Faith
Untested faith is not approved faith. It is tested and approved faith that brings about character and proven character brings about hope. These are the fruits of proven faith and the fruits of Christian character.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Rom 5:1-5).
Countless people claim to be Christians, but without the testing of their profession of faith, there can be no manifestation of what sort of faith it is. If no one told us from the Bible about God’s intent to test our faith when under severe tribulation and trial, we would easily fall into walking by sight and imagine in our lengthy troubles that God was not for us. But the trial of our faith is God’s plan. For by testing our faith He not only reveals our hearts deepest affections but also our first love.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him (Jas 1:2-5).
The proof of the genuineness of our faith is proven by trials. God promises that this testing and suffering will result in glory, honor, and praise when the sons of God are revealed.
In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls (1 Pet 1:6-9).
Our problem is that we do not often think that these trials are producing something far more precious than mountains of gold. Our trials appear to be a nuisance but that is because we do not perceive that the possession of proven faith is the only wealth that will survive the grave (1 Pet 1:6-9). In our tribulations and affliction, do we deliberately connect these dots as the apostle James and Peter do in the first chapters of their epistles (Jas 1:2-5; 1 Pet 1:6-9)? Here are the dots, tribulation and testing result in endurance and proven character and proven faith results in hope. Proven faith will be presented as deserving of glory, honor and praise. These are things which are worth far more than gold which is perishable.
Scripture tells us what our demeanor should be under testing and discipline
Christ is the object of our faith and every believer is united to Him. But this relationship is fleshed out in the great statement, “All that God is toward us in Christ.” Times of testing are interspersed with seasons of rest and comfort in the Lord. The promise in 1 Peter chapter 5 is that after periods of testing and suffering, God will strengthen, establish, perfect and confirm the believer.
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you (1 Pet 5:6-10).
Scripture is utterly realistic. No discipline is for the moment comfortable, but is indeed distressing
“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12:11). But the promise is that afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
We are God’s workmanship, His poem and portrait; He is the potter, we are the clay. The saving faith He worked in us, He nurtures, stretches, exercises, and tests that He might present it before His holy angels. Faith approved has tremendous character. I think of mountain top trees shaped by decades of storms. These ridgeline trees do not look like the forest trees below. The trees in a thick stand look more or less the same like a swath of pulpwood pines. But, ridgeline trees have incredible character formed by the years of storms which they have endured. The structure of their roots, trunks and branches and burls have been sculpted by fierce winds and by ice, snow and hail. Massive roots have wrapped around boulders and anchored themselves in crevices. What a picture this is of proven faith which always results in proven character. In Hebrews chapter 11, there is a kind of alphabet and vocabulary of the many ways that saints have had their faith tested and proven. These tests have not been without slipups and stumbles and temporary failure. But no soldier of Christ listed in Hebrews chapter 11 ever fell from faith. How precious is our faith to God. For our faith is the foundational virtue of all other virtues. All of our growth, sanctification and righteousness are founded upon an experiential knowledge of who God is and the faith which first laid hold of Him. In His grace, God has bestowed and worked faith in every one of His elect. He nurtures it, grows it, exercises it, develops it, tests it, proves it and ultimately reveals it before the Holy angels as more precious than gold. For our proven faith reveals God’s infinite worth and reliability. Christ is the object of our faith. His love is a subduing and constraining love. The experience of abiding in Him is a friendship like nothing on earth. He has total knowledge of us with all or our faults and yet He is perfectly consistent in His tenderness and faithfulness. He does not miss one iota of our trust and love and loyalty to Him. He is a sympathetic high priest. Scripture says He puts our tears in a bottle. And, He has prepared a new name for each one of His own that only He and the believer fully grasp (Rev 2:17). This name will encompass your love and loyalty to the redeemer amidst the proving and testing of your faith. This is all related to Christ’s preeminence, supremacy and majesty. We are to live upon His glory and majesty. When our knowledge of His majesty fades, so also does our grasp of reality fade, for the sovereign God of Scripture is man’s very environment.
Waiting upon the God of Majesty changes us
Arthur Pink catalogues the effects that God’s majesty and sovereignty are to have upon a believer: veneration of the divine character, foundation of true religion, repudiation of salvation by works, humility to the creature, absolute security, comfort in sorrow, spirit of sweet resignation, evoking praise, guarantee of final triumph, provision of a resting place for the heart (Arthur Pink, The Sovereignty of God, pp. 188-201).
The contemplation and reliance upon divine majesty is to have a healing healthful effect upon the believer. God wants His children to be properly adjusted to, calibrated to, and aligned to His majesty. And the posture of this alignment to God’s majesty is described as waiting upon the Lord. This waiting upon Him in submission, weakness, dependency, and trust is the very opposite of sinning and scheming in order to get our needs met.
Waiting on the Lord is against our nature; it flies in the face of our rugged self-reliance. When we are waiting on the Lord, it can at times feel like we are twisting in the wind, heavily exposed, and out on a long thin limb with God. During these periods there is often a lot of mental disputing. A thought may circulate in our minds, “To what should I attribute His apparent delays?” It cannot be attributed to divine inability, nor a lack of love, or a limit to His understanding. To what shall I attribute this extended delay?
During sustained difficulties when our problems are acute, pressing and unrelieved it can be a real fight to consistently honor God. But what do we see in Isaiah chapter 40? We see God promising to impart supernatural strength and endurance. Like a high flying eagle able to soar over obstacles. These gifts of hope, power and stamina are linked to the condition of a willingness to wait upon God.
Waiting on God is inseparable from a hunger to know Him as He truly is
You might say, but I have waited weeks, months and years. But the waiting enjoined here in Isaiah chapter 40 is not just patiently marking time, it is waiting upon the God of majesty, the majesty that you actively enjoined to explore, adore, contemplate and revere. It is the majesty of our God who stakes His own reputation on the sureness of His promises to His people. It is the majesty that exhibits and displays His perfections in His dealings and governing of His creatures. It is the majesty that promises so much to those who fear Him. It is the majesty that can do beyond what we ask or think (Eph 3:20-21).
You might say to me, Oh pastor, I don’t know how much longer I can hold out. I feel that I am at my breaking point. I have prayed many desperation prayers. But here is the counsel we must heed. Waiting on God changes us in ways which prepare us for God’s answers. Waiting produces an amazing grasp of reality that is worked into us. Even the arrogant king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar came to this understanding of God’s sovereignty and majesty when God humbled him to the point of eating grass like a cow.
But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ (Dan 4:34-35).
In light of eternity, our greatest need is not necessarily the change in our circumstances that we have been pleading for, but the imparting of God Himself. Sometimes I have been most desperate for the answer I want when I have been most forgetful that the greatest gift is God Himself. It is during those times that I am far more focused on a tangible answer than I am upon a grace awakening which imparts afresh growth in the knowledge of God.
So in our demandingness we imagine that what we need will come as a gift or commodity that is not necessarily linked to greater closeness to the Lord. But, that is false. God deals with us in such a way that what He imparts to His saints whether gift or trial, whether prosperity or chastisement is always designed to impart Himself with it and the knowledge of Himself. From our human viewpoint, you might say that God has a challenge: How can He abundantly bless His children without making them idolaters? In other words, without having them become more infatuated with the gift than Himself. This is why waiting on God is so vital. God has an all wise time table that is intended to bring the impartation of God with the needed answer.
Waiting on God while living in a culture of immediacy can be tough, but immeasurably rewarding
It may be in the very near future that an unmanned drone unlocks your door and leaves the package you ordered on the living room floor within hours of placing your order. As each year goes by, delivery time becomes shorter. But this is not so with God; He changes not. The Lord who has us wait has very good reasons for having us do so. It is wise for us to know what is taking place during our waiting upon Him. God is creating a hunger in us for Himself in us and not just a desire for the stated relief or gift.
So what are the evidences that a Christian has been waiting upon God in a Biblical manner? The answer is this, look again at the promises made to those who wait upon Him at the end of Isaiah chapter 40. For those who wait upon the God of majesty will experience these things.
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.
He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power.
Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those
who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary (Is 40:28-31).
They will experience these evidences of endurance and strength. In summary, waiting upon the Lord assures us that the gift that He imparts is never separated from the gift of Himself—for God works in this way so that there might be a growing, sweet knowledge of Himself.
Finishing well is never a coincidence; it is based upon overcoming
Finishing well is a never a coincidence. It requires sacrifice, foresight, vision and planning. In a word, it calls for spiritual sight. Of the 12 spies who scoped out Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey, only two, Joshua and Caleb had spiritual sight. Spiritual sight is needed in order to ‘see’ God as infinitely bigger than the obstacles that stand in the way.
During what we perceive as delays can be a time of intense temptation. We think of the children of Israel at the base of Sinai when Moses was above for many days. In their fear and unbelief, they imagined Moses was not coming back or that he had died. Out of this unbelief in the promises of God, they sought to appoint leaders to return to Egypt. And, they demanded that Aaron construct a golden calf. In his first epistle to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul documents the blasphemous idolatrous revelry that ensued.
For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry (1 Cor 10:1-14).
This section of Scripture is a veritable catalog of wrong responses under testing. The infidelity of God’s people, Israel is also recorded in Psalms such as 78, and 106. As faith is abandoned, a sinful pattern emerges in which one area of disobedience leads to another: 1) Sight: walking by sight so as to exercise doubt concerning God’s promises in His Word. 2) Cynicism concerning God’s intent to bless His people. 3) Sensuality is embraced in an effort to find comfort. 4)
Stronghold: a ruling set of lusts sets up idolatry in the heart. But, the good news is that waiting on the Lord breaks, or mortifies this idolatrous cycle.
Believers are responsible to study and learn the ways of God from His Word
God who created all things Ex Nihilo exercises sovereign control over what He has made. Some times in Scripture God’s sovereign control in providence is designated ‘the ways of God’. We are responsible to know God’s ways, the paths He takes in our lives by means of His majesty.
We are responsible to search the Scriptures and learn the ways of God. For, His ways are not our ways, and not by a small margin (Is 55:8-9). The Lord faults the failure in the wilderness of the unbelieving Israelites to two things: 1) They had an evil heart of unbelief that tested God.
- They did not know God’s ways (Heb 3:7-11).
God’s ways are focused upon teaching us that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD” (Deut 8:3). So, in the context of Deuteronomy 8 we could say that God’s ways are how He goes about teaching us to live by His Word more that by sense, and sight and our wits. God used hunger, thirst, disappointment, manna, water from the rock, purifying of bitter waters, sandals not wearing out, and a host of other things to teach His people to live by faith in His Word. Like a tutor with one lesson to imbue with extensive review, this lesson requires constant repetition.
Even before sin entered the world, God’s ways were evident in how He dealt with unfallen Adam. The Lord let Adam feel his need of a partner intensely before presenting her to Adam. After a day of naming all of the animals, Adam saw that there was no mate for him. Thus God’s ways involve allowing us to enter situations in which we do not have the power to provide a solution to our need. We might add that putting Adam to sleep and taking his wife from his side is wonderful prefiguring of the Church taken from the wounded side of Christ, her Husband.
Now, in a fallen world, believers from time to time face opposing circumstances or even dire straits from which they cannot deliver themselves. These dealings are a part of ‘God’s ways’. It is easy to deduce from these timeless principles that the Lord providentially sends events into our lives which ‘leverage’ us upon Himself so that our idolatrous craving to control everything is humbled.
A closing word about expecting God to come through
And, on a smaller scale of rebellion we observe that our carnal natures often seek to insulate ourselves from disappointment by trusting less instead of trusting more. Is it any wonder that the Puritan divines counsel us to increase our trust by feeding on biblical promises until our reliance upon God is characterized by what they designated as ‘holy expectation’. ‘Holy’ in the sense that the godly are known by their trust in God and by their expectation that He will keep His Word in all of His dealings with us.