Trust God, Not Man

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners: The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous: The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down” (Psm. 146:3-9). The message of this Psalm is very simplistic: We can either trust fully in God, and prosper thereby, or we can trust in man and fall flat on our faces. Sounds like an easy choice, or a no-brainer as it is said; so why do so few people make the right choice? Plain and simple, it is because of fear. The sad fact is that most people choose to trust in their fears rather than to turn their fears over to God and be delivered from them. More folks ought to read the Psalm of David which says, “I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears… This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles” (Psm. 34:4,6). Too many folks are just too busy being too afraid of too many things to take the time and the heartfelt honesty to give their troubles to the Lord and let him relieve them of their fears about their troubles. Jesus plainly and clearly made the same monumentally gracious offer to all of us: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat. 11:28). That is a perpetual cry of the one who gave his life for us to have the rest that he mentioned there, and yet so many fail to take him up on the offer.

Too many people allow fear to talk them into trusting in man, or in money, or in some other empty source other than Jesus, who alone is the source of any and all hope and help. When we fail to honestly and humbly beseech Jesus for his help and guidance, we have no choice but to revert to fearfulness and deceit. That route my friend, will always lead to a place that you think not. Reason being that the very spirit of fear that you give into is a lying demon that wants to take you to the very thing that you are trying to escape. As it is written: “The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted” (Prov. 10:24). ‘The righteous’ in that scenario are those who choose to cast their burdens on the Lord rather than to give into fear and be deceived thereby. We are coming to a place in this nation and in this world very speedily where the occasion for fear will be of such a magnitude that none living have ever imagined; and the inability to overcome fear will cost a whole lot of people their souls and maybe their lives as well. The shame of it is that it is not a hard thing to do to condition one’s self to trust in the love and the power of God, rather than to give in to fear. All it takes is faith in Jesus, an honest and humble heart, and a determination to not be defeated. Jesus has already won the battle, so all we need do is abide in him by that same faith, honesty, humility, and perseverance; and we will be victorious. It’s certain that we can’t afford to not be victorious, seeing that “the fearful… shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8). It really comes down to heeding the admonition of the ancient proverb, that tells us, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). May God help us and give us an abundance of grace to do just that. Amen.