Monday's Messianic Taste of Hidden Manna #56
Trust Wholeheartedly, Hope Fully!
2, 4, 6, 8, It is Time to Adimpleate!
When I was very young, my parents had a subscription to Reader's Digest. Shortly after I learned to read, I was very taken by the feature in it called "It Pays to Increase Your Word Power". In fact, my Mom turned it into a game where she would orally read me the vocabulary words, and I would then have to guess their meaning from the multiple choice options provided by the writer of the feature. It led to a love for words, especially big words that communicated profound meaning. As it turns out, the feature was written by Wilfred Funk who was a lifelong advocate for learning new vocabulary words. He was the President of the company that published the Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary. When he died in 1965, his son Peter took over the feature and called it "It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power". I want to enrich our lives this week via the word 'adimpleate'! It means to fill up or complete. It's time to adimpleate or FILL UP our trust and hope—so that we trust wholeheartedly and hope fully!
I Trust You Will Understand Hope More Fully Now
When Teresa Morgan wrote her wondrous 514 page book on 'faith' that was published in 2015, she first showed that 'trust producing trustworthiness' was a far better foundational understanding of the Biblical terms and concepts that we usually refer to as 'faith'. However, perhaps her greatest contribution was to show that no term, concept, or key quality in the Bible was intended to be understood in isolation from the cluster of terms, concepts, and qualities to which it belongs. In fact, she rightly asserted that terms, concepts, and key qualities like trust (pistis), righteousness (dikaiosunē), love (agapē), grace (charis), reliability (alētheia), shalom (eirēnē), etc., are to be understood as belonging together in a cluster known as the community or household of the kingdom of God! I use a cosmic metaphor instead. Like the individual stars in a constellation, each of these key values shines in its own right and adds to the full meaning of the holistic constellation. If truth be known, 'hope' is one of the fullblown qualities that cannot be understood in isolation from the starting place of 'trust'. As we continue to unpack this beautiful truth below, I trust you will understand hope more fully now.
Trust Wholeheartedly and Fully Hope!
As Morgan rightly asserted, where someone locates their foundational trust is a key factor in shaping their mindset. So because the trustworthiness of YHWH and Messiah is so over the top, the person who wholeheartedly entrusts themselves to YHWH and Messiah Yeshua is characterized by shalom (wholeness, completeness, soundness, sufficiency, satisfaction, harmony, peace, and other such things) or holistic wellbeing. Two of the most profound expressions of such trust that produces shalom are found in the Prophets. "The mindset of the one who is characterized by leaning on You is kept in perfect shalom, because that one trusts in You" (Isa 26:3). "Blessed is the person who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. For they are like a tree planted by the waters, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit" (Jer 17:7–8).
Moreover, because such Biblical trust always looks backward to the history of the incomparable over the top trustworthiness of YHWH and Messiah, it automatically looks forward to the guaranteed future hope of the fulfillment (more accurately FILL FULLment) of all of the promises of God and Messiah. Profound Biblical trust produces profound Biblical hope that carries with it the eager anticipation of the ultimate future realization of all things such as the coming fullness of the kingdom of God and Messiah, full bodily resurrection and glorification, and restoration to Edenic face-to-face relationship with YHWH and Messiah who will reign forever and ever on the new earth. Such hope empowers us to overcome and persevere in our here and now—no matter how difficult the circumstances we may find ourselves in individually or as a community of Messiah followers.
"Thus, we are able to rejoice in any sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope, and hope never disappoints" (Rom 5:3–5a)! So let us have this adimpleated, FULL, holistic Messianic mindset, worldview, and way of life that empowers us to TRUST WHOLEHEARTEDLY and HOPE FULLY no matter what the circumstances!
In your service always, Henri Louis Goulet