This ain't no chicken before the egg question.

Psalm 4:5- Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.

Psalm 4: 7 -8: You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

It is hard to comprehend at times the connectedness between our ability to trust the Lord and our apparent need to act “right”. For real trust to be birthed and experienced, the “right” sacrifices are necessary, but what we have often determined are the “right sacrifices”, are in fact, pride-born self-righteous acts that can never lead us to the joy and peace marked real trust in the Lord.

Psalm 51:17- the sacrifices of the Lord are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise.

The “right sacrifices” that the Lord is after have nothing to do with our actions but more a state of heart that leads to a acting posture of trust. For real, whole-hearted trust to be present, it is marked by a complete and utter un-self righteous dependence. This is where it gets tricky in our self-sufficient society, which teaches us through self-help techniques, and positive reinforcement we can create, manifest, and “live out” with confidence the cognitive and emotional state of joy, peace and trust. When we inevitably fail to do so, and our lack of joy, peace, and trust is exposed, we become prime candidates for needless loathing in guilt and shame. Yet scripture is clear that true joy and peace is the by-product, not predecessor, of trust. And trust is preceded by grace, not effort.

It’s hard to quantify how much time I spend feeling ashamed that my feelings and emotional state don’t often reflect what I believe. I can spend endless amounts of emotional energy trying to change how I feel to reflect what I “believe”, rather than shamelessly taking my fear, anger, and doubt (unbelief and brokenness) to the Lord for him to comfort, and therefore give way to trust (belief).

The conflict is twofold. It is one of order and origin. First lets deal with order. As the psalmist states, “right sacrifices” precede trust, and that the sacrifices of the Lord are a broken and contrite heart. Therefore we can see that attempting to produce an emotional state of “joy” which reflects trust is not just unnecessary, but impossible. It also shows us that we still have a deep seeded resistance to needing God for anything, and our relentless desire to “prove” to God that although others need his grace to trust, we somehow have escaped and are above such poverty of self.

Yet scripture is clear that it is in our brokenness, in our contriteness (marked by sorrow, not joy), that is the road (“right sacrifice”) to real trust, which gives birth to joy and peace.

We have the order backwards. Joy only after sorrow. Trust only after humility and brokenness. Trust never is born on strength of self, but weakness given way to firm reliance in someone truly strong. We must understand this order, for if we don’t, needless hours, days and even years of our lives can be marked by trying to trust in God, rather than letting him lead us into trust, trying to live with joy and peace, rather than assuming a posture that allows Him to “fill our hearts with greater joy” and cause us to “sleep in peace.”

This answers our origin question. The origin of joy, or trust, of peace, for the Christ follower is never found or had without the “right sacrifices.” It is our pride and unwillingness to approach Christ broken that keeps us from experiencing Christ and consequently the peace and joy we desire. Christ himself is the author of our peace, joy and trust. It is only in his presence that we have a hope of experiencing such states of grace, which transcend our daily circumstances. All else is self-motivated, soon to let down, frail, humanistic shadows of the ruddy grace and God-given trust that we need to get through this broken life.

Psalm 5: 5 – The arrogant cannot stand in your presence.

Mark 9:24 – I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.