The past few days and weeks have taught me priceless life lessons. One such lesson is not to put my trust in man. My Bible told me this in Psalm 146:3, Psalm 118:8 and Isaiah 2:22 but I did not listen. I chose to trust in and rely on man, kidding myself that I was trusting Jesus only. Thoughts of my experiences in the said period bring me to tears; I guess I had to learn the hard way.
Psalm 146:3 “Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.”
Belief and trust are two dissimilar things often used interchangeably and as a result causes us to be misled. Belief or believe means to have confidence in an assertion or truth or something appearing to be true without necessarily having proof. Trust on the other means reliance on the integrity or surety of a person or thing. It means confidence in the certainty of something. Notice the difference? Many a times, we find ourselves trying to make sense of the instructions given to us by God. We try to play into God’s mind and give our own interpretations or rationale behind the things we are told not to do, and when we are unsuccessful, we are bewildered. Man is not the creator or giver of life, he is a mere mortal. He is uncertain about the future and at best can only forecast its events. Why put our trust in him? The source of life has sole knowledge of the certainty of tomorrow, He alone can and should be trusted. So when the bible clearly spells out in various verses not to put our trust in humans and princes, it is in our best interest. Putting your trust in man will most of the time lead to disappointment, pain and misery. There is only much a person can do for you. There will come a time when the person in whom you trust will need to or will look out for himself only and then at that point, your trust or plans go awry. You will be let down by man, dear reader. It may be subtle but it will amount to a major disappointment some day. The hymn says, “…the arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own…”
Psalm 118:8 “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.”
Another form of trusting your own is trusting in your own abilities; the “I can do it all by myself” mentality. Believing in yourself is key, but relying on God is paramount. You are flesh and hence you are no exception to the man you are not supposed to put your trust in. I was blessed to listen to man of God speak on this issue. In his delivery he asked, “Are you expecting or calculating?” Are you the person placing your trust in God and expecting Him to deliver? Or you are the fellow believing in your own abilities and calculating how things are going to turn out? By placing your trust in your abilities and calculating how God is going to show up, you unconsciously place a limit on how you would want Him to move in your life. When that limitation is not realized, doubts and fears are then reeled in. You are therefore led to question God and trust in man; a fatal act which may have inevitable consequences. Let’s take An input-output-feedback process for example. A right input produces the desired output. The converse is true. So misplacing your trust will not lead to the desired output and your feedback will be the arm of flesh failing you.
God places abilities in each and every one of us. However, He tells us to trust in Him wholly. Committing that which He has placed in you to Him and relying on Him for empowerment will make you a force to reckon with. Trust and obey the Lord as you walk with Him and He will make your path straight. Do not learn the hard way as it is quite unpleasant.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus…
queenlysmith 