All my siblings will tell you this about our childhood: When the church doors were open, we were in attendance. Our dad made sure of it! And not surprisingly, it was his example and his insistence that the local church occupied primacy in our family life that hugely influenced my own passion for the local church.

I hold many fond childhood memories of attending the little white cinder block church building at the corner of 17th Street and Tuttle Avenue. One such memory includes my father leading the congregation to sing:

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way,
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Trust and obey. That seems way too simple. My life feels complicated. My besetting sin seems baffling. In my pride I can search far and wide for some deep profound truth—the key to unlock my “mysterious” problem; or spend excessive time trying to analyze and figure out my sin. Rather, I must act upon the simple profound truth found in this song: Trust and Obey

Paul Tripp explains in his book, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands: "The Christian life can really be boiled down to two words: trust and obey. I must always entrust the things that are out of my control to God, and I must always be faithful to obey clear and specific commands."

So what are your “complicated” problems today? May I encourage you to simply Trust and Obey.

-- Carolyn Mahaney