It is better to put trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. (Psa 118:8).
Why is it better to put trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man? God is always faithful. He is always trustworthy. Many a morning, as we pray at the breakfast table, I reflect on the fact that the sun coming up reminds us of God’s faithfulness. None of us know of a day that the sun did not come up. None of us know of a day that gravity didn’t work. None of us know of a day when it was right to steal from our neighbor. None of us know of a day when it was right to murder our neighbor.
One of the foundational truths that must be laid down is that God is trustworthy. God is faithful. He is the definition of trustworthy and faithfulness. All men will fail you, but God is the One whom faithfulness describes.
If we cannot come to grips with this, our faith will never flourish. Doubt and distrust leave as we witness God’s faithfulness. How many times have God’s people discovered the care that He had for them? How many times have we experienced hard times and looked back to see that God was shaping and molding us as a potter does the clay?
The story is told of the Brooklyn Bridge that was built in New York City in the 1800s. PT Barnum offered to take his elephants across the bridge when it was finished to celebrate its completion. His suggestion was rejected. However, after it was completed, the people were afraid to walk across it. They didn’t trust this suspension bridge.
Soon after it opened, there was a panic on the bridge, which caused a stampede in which twelve people were killed, and seven others were injured seriously. The people didn’t have faith in it and were afraid that it would fall. It was the longest suspension bridge at that time.
It was thought that perhaps it would be a good idea for PT Barnum to walk his elephants across to show that it was safe. Twenty-one elephants walked across the Brooklyn Suspension Bridge in May of 1884 and put to rest the people’s fears.
God came to earth as a man to show us how to live with our Faith and Trust placed in Him. Jesus demonstrated to us that God is worthy to entrust our lives to. He taught us that God sees each sparrow that falls. How much more does He care for His children.
For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe (ITi 4:10).
We work hard because we trust in the goodness of God. We believe that God’s blessing is on those who place their trust in him.
We suffer reproach at times because we place our trust in God. The worldly-minded man looking on may scoff at us for trusting God instead of a security system at our house.
We trust in many things. But what is the fundamental structure or being that we have our trust system rooted in? Is our trust system prioritized correctly? A proper faith/trust system should be a hierarchy with faith and trust in God as the bedrock belief.
Talk is cheap. Actions declare what we trust in. There is a lifestyle that demonstrates a deep faith and trust in God, and there are lifestyles that demonstrate a missing faith and trust in God.
My foundational trust needs to be in the Eternal One. Yes, we trust a lot of other things as well in life. But our deepest faith must reside with the One that created us.
Our trust must be in the God of the Scripture. The God who created us. The God who loved us so much that he came to earth to live as a man.
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding (Pro 3:5).
Faith & Trust in God connects us to the Rock that our life can be built on.
Jesus tells the story of the wise man and foolish man that teaches us to build our house on the rock so that we can weather the storms of life.
Our God is a rock that we can build our life on. Nothing will shake or move it. When this world goes up in smoke, He will still be the same. But we must place our trust in Him, if we are going to build our lives on Him.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit (Jer 17:7-8).
God is a river of nutrition for our soul if we place our faith and trust in Him. Our lives can flourish if we plant ourselves in good soil near the Living water. But we must trust Him and let our roots go down and drink from Him.
Faith & trust calm the anxieties that come as we live life.
Faith and trust in God are antidotes for worry and anxiety. It is the best antidote for dealing with the anxieties of life. We need to rest in the confidence that God will work out what is best for us. The Scripture promises us that all things work together for good to them that love God and to those who are called according to his purpose. What we fear may be the best path for us. And if it is, embracing that in our life will enable us to negotiate that reality successfully.
Anxiety can incapacitate an individual and make them very dysfunctional. Our minds can be overloaded if we succumb to anxiety. There are loads that we as people aren’t designed to carry.
Faith and trust in God guide our life’s decisions.
In Isaiah 36, we have the story of the King of Assyria sending his army up against Jerusalem. The Leader of the army was Rabshakeh. He stood outside the wall and spoke in Hebrew and tried to convince the people hearing him not to trust in the Lord.
Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria (Isa 36:15).
Hezekiah sent for the Prophet Isaiah for help. God told Isaiah, I will send a blast, and Rabshakeh will hear a rumor that will cause him to return home.
There are voices today standing on the edge of the kingdom of Heaven saying, don’t trust in the Lord. Just like Rabshakeh stood outside Jerusalem and tried a propaganda campaign to destroy the faith of the Jews.
That voice can be the insurance world. I studied to get my WV contractor’s license, and the number of different insurances that a contractor can buy is mind-boggling. And then you can always buy an umbrella policy to cover beyond what the normal policy covers. Is trust placed in God when we place it in our insurance coverage?
There are many voices in Health Care as well. What care should we use for the ailments in our bodies? There is a world out there on both sides of health care that makes a lot of money preying on people’s anxieties.
“We believe the primary source of healing is in God. We encourage our membership to keep the practice of anointing with oil and laying on of hands as a meaningful part of the Christian experience.
Forms of health care that rely on occult powers shall be strictly avoided. We sense the danger of any health practice where there is no scientific explanation.”
As we live this coming year, let us remember that faith and trust is the clutch that connects us to the Rock. Faith and trust is the calming force for our anxieties. And Faith and Trust help us to navigate life successfully.
It is better to put trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man (Psa 118:8).