Trust God or Trust Man?

If we do not trust God, we are left with poor substitutes. Trust in myself or trust in someone else. We know where that leads us! Isn’t there a verse to ‘not trust in man’? I had to look it up, we have Psalm 1463, ‘Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.’

Trust in myself

I can’t trust myself to get the laundry out of the washer fast enough that it doesn’t smell. Really, I have to give myself reminders to get the laundry done. Such a simple task, nothing big or life-altering like work, family, health. Just laundry. How could I possibly dream of trusting myself to find the right job? To choose the right course of study? To time the birth of children? To keep kids healthy and happy? Just the thought of taking life on all by myself is exhausting, let alone actually doing it. Most of us have taken things into our own hands and realize how that turned out. I ran away from a church retreat because I didn’t know what to do and lived with the shame for a long time. I had to forgive myself and ask forgiveness. It separated me from God when it didn’t need to.

I was miserable all because I thought I had to do it myself, and not let God work in and through me. I guess I knew I couldn’t trust myself which made me run. All I had to do was trust God. Instead I did exactly what Jeremiah says in Chapter 17, verses 5-6, I drew strength (or rather lack thereof) from my own flesh and was like a bush in the wastelands, dwelling in the parched places of the desert. I withdrew and my walk with God suffered immensely; it was the beginning of a long back-slide. I should have trusted in God.

Trust in others

Struggling to trust God is probably more a struggle to give up my trust in myself. And after that trip down memory lane, I am definitely more inclined to give up and give in to God. But I know that there have been times when I have trusted in man instead. But the result is always the same. It is a painful mess. The woman with the issue of blood is a heartbreaking example of trusting in others. Mark 5:25-34 says, ‘She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.’ She went broke and she was worse off than before. When she put her trust in Jesus, though she was healed. She felt in her body immediately that she was no longer plagued with ill health; she was ‘freed from her suffering.’

Trust Him

How long do we suffer before we reach out for Jesus, before we long to simply touch the hem of his garment? Any suffering is too long, really. We know that we can have His peace and comfort through a simple prayer. We have to reach out to Him before we know what the resolution is. I say resolution, because we struggle to trust when we need something, when we are in crisis circumstances. He is able to do more than we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20); we cannot expect ourselves or man to do what only He can.