regaining hope in people

People will fail you.  God won’t.  In my forty-three years of life many times people that I cared about, people that I respected have let me down.  I bet your have been there as well.

When we place our trust in the wrong things, we will be disappointed many times.  There are all kinds of things that people put their trust.  There are all kinds of reasons that people wrongly place their trust, yet we ought to learn from our experiences.  If you are like me, I have trusted some things that let me down time and time again.  Some things are hard to learn.

Psalm 20:7  NIV

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Some times we trust in things.  Like money.  Money will be here and then gone.  Unless you have a plan, a budget and lots of self-control, our money will be gone soon.

Some times we trust in our strength or in our health.  There are years I have gone a pretty long time without getting sick, but those times will end when a cold or some sickness hits me.  My health will be gone.  When you use your strength too much, you get weaker.  Strength will return, but it takes time.

There are times we trust in people.  It might even be good people we trust in.  A pastor.  A family member.  A close friend.  I’ve been let down and disappointed by one of each of those and more.

But is God who will not let us down.  We can trust Him at all times and in every situation.  God loves us, and His plan for our lives is for our success as well for our abundance like John 10:10 says.  Our enemy robs from us when God has a plan to give to us and to reshape us into greater people.

Misplaced trust leads to all kinds of problems.  It is also easy to think we are fully trusting in God when we are not.  Look at all of life and all of our faith.  Trusting God in one area of life and not in another means you are not trusting God at all.

Romans 9:32  NLT

Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.

Chose to trust God in all areas.  Don’t hold back.

Isaiah 26:4  NLT

Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.

When we trust God, we can begin to see people the way God sees them.  God loves people, and by seeing people like this literally we regain hope in people.  That is because we will trust God more than we trust humans.  That is the way God intended life to work. 

NOTE: help us help kids this Christmas.  In partnership with our local Social Service, we are serving kids in foster care.  There are a few other families we are helping as well.  If you would like to be part of making their Christmas special, please send me an email at mharrison@thecommunityfellowship.org, and I will get you the information.  Gifts are due early next week.