‘Faithless charms’ dangle before us, but only one love endures
By Dean Collins
“I put my trust in faithless charms and fled my father’s sheltering arms.” That is the opening line of a Pat Terry song entitled “Enduring Love.” It was recorded in 1979, and I began to play and sing it sometime in the early 80s. To this day I am moved every time I hear or play this song.
The song tells the story of a pilgrim who had lost his way in life. The only way for the storyteller to lead the pilgrim home was to connect him to the matchless and enduring love of Jesus, our Shepherd. The premise of the song is that trusting in any source of life other than God will ultimately lead to a dead end. The prophet Jeremiah had a similar message in the 17th chapter of Jeremiah: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” Jeremiah describes the difference between trusting in any man, including oneself, over God. To trust in man results in experiencing life like a shrub in the desert. To do so translates into a wilderness with nothing but parched ground and uninhabited saltland.
Trust the Lord
Jeremiah tells us that the alternative is to trust in the Lord. When we place our hope, our faith, and our confidence in God, we are like a tree planted by water. Trees planted near the water send out their roots to the streams, are watered well, and do not fear the heat or drought.
At about the same time I learned the Pat Terry song I also learned another song from a student who was my neighbor in Auburn. The song is this passage from Jeremiah put to music. I cannot tell you how many times I have sung or spoken these words to God and reminded myself of their truth.
Jeremiah continued his prophetic word reminding the reader that the human tendency is to seek hope and help from other sources than God. In life we face numerous challenges. It might be a health crisis, a financial challenge, an uncertain family situation, or any number of other problems. Certainly, God can use doctors, business consultants, therapists, and others to help, but ultimately our great hope of strength, resolution, and victory comes from the Lord. He may choose to use any number of people to provide aid, but our ultimate trust must be in God.
Eternal solutions
The problem of God’s children all through history has been believing we can figure out a better path than the one God will show us. Jeremiah ends this section with these powerful words: “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.”
God’s healing and salvation are pure and clean and result in a divine transformation of our hearts, minds, and souls. Ultimately, God’s will is done on earth as it is in Heaven. What happens in eternity is permanent. What happens before then is temporary. Our dilemma is that we often default to that which is temporal when the eternal solutions are available to enjoy now and forever.
Lord, forgive us when we place our trust in faithless charms we find all around us. Today we choose to trust you completely with all our problems and challenges. You alone are our hope. We accept your paths and your outcomes now, knowing that you will redeem our surrender and that we will be refreshed, renewed, and transformed for eternity. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your time with God’s Word
Jeremiah 17:5-10, 12-14 ESV
Photo by Jordan Donaldson | @jordi.d on Unsplash
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