A minister once said, “You cannot find in scripture where you are to trust people. The Bible only tells us to put our trust in God.” If you’ve never thought about this before, it is a bit surprising at first. But with more meditation, it is not only true, but makes sense.
“It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man” (Psalm 118:8).
The Bible instructs us to trust God with all our heart. It’s when we trust people with all our heart, that we often end up hurt and disappointed. People (you and I included) are not able to fully satisfy another’s trust. We will fail at some point.
But does this mean we never trust people? No.
The word trust describes a reliance on the integrity, strength, or ability of another. For example, I trust my husband and he trusts me. We don’t live in an atmosphere of suspicion. We have proven integrity with one another. But we have also failed and disappointed one another at times.
And this is where God helps us.
We are to fully trust Him and simply love others. “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Love is able to look over the faults of another, whereas if we only put our trust in people we will be let down. Love, on the other hand, may be let down when people fail to fulfill our expectations, but it has the unique ability to forgive and offer compassion– despite our disappointment.
In fact, the Bible repeatedly reminds us to “…love your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:8, Matthew 5:43, 19:19, 22:39, Mark 12:31,33, Luke 10:27). According to the Bible, your neighbor is anyone living in the same land. I guess that would include anyone who’s feet tread the same ground as yours.
The bottom line is this: Trust God. LOVE people.
You and I are bound to get hurt if we put all our trust in people– and we’ll lose out if we never learn to love them. But in the end, we win when our trust is in God and His love for people remains strong in our hearts.
