How are you doing in the area of Trusting God? What area do you need to surrender to Him? May this story about the song "Trust & Obey" encourage you today to trust the Lord in all things!

                Daniel B. Towner, who wrote the melody to the song 'Trust and Obey', inherited his love of music from his father, a beloved vocalist and music teacher. While growing up, Daniel studied with some of the finest musicians available and began his career as a worship leader in a Methodist church in Binghamton, New York. He later served churches in Ohio and Kentucky before being tapped by evangelist D.L. Moody in the fall fo 1885. For several years, Daniel traveled with Moody, singing and doing personal work.

He once explained how this hymn came to be written:

                "Mr. Moody was conducting a series of meetings in Brockton, Massachusetts, and I had the pleasure of singing for him there. One night a young man rose in a testimony meeting and said, 'I am not quite sure- but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.' I just jotted that sentence down, and sent it with the little story to Rev. J.H. Sammis, a Presbyterian minister.

Sammis wrote a poem based on the phrase 'trust and obey,' and sent it back to Towner, who went to work on the music.

                Alfred Smith, in his Treasury of Hymn Histories, adds that while working on the music to "Trust and Obey," Dr. Towner grew discouraged. That evening in his home, he crumpled up the paper and threw the manuscript into the wastebasket. The next morning, as his wife was straightening his office, she retrieved the crumpled paper and sang over the words and melody to herself. She left it on the organ and encouraged her husband to work on it some more, telling him, "I feel the melody you have written is just what is needed to carry the message." With that encouragement he finished the melody and for years this song has challenged people to trust and obey the Lord.

                The chorus to the song says, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey." God's Word says in Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths." Decide today to trust Him more!