Trust No One, Love Everyone
Dear Diary,
I don’t know why but the Lord keeps dealing with me on this issue of trust. A few days ago, I spoke about how I have trouble trusting people for various reasons, although the two main reasons were my fear of being hurt and not really believing in the motives/abilities of people. Someone sent me a personal thought with regard to the blog and I thought the claim was interesting, so I decided to look into it a little further. The comment was that God never told us to trust anyone, He told us to love everyone. Now I thought that was a really fascinating concept, because I thought love and trust went together. So I asked the Lord if He could shed some light on that.
So the first thing I did was I looked up the definition of trust. I mean I have a basic understanding of what it means, but I wanted to know the real definition. So trust is defined as, "reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety of a person or thing; or confident expectation of something." That made sense. So then I looked up what the Bible says about trust and 2 scriptures stuck out to me. Micah 7:5 says “do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with the woman who lies in your embrace guard the words of your lips.” and Jeremiah 17:5, 7 and 8 says “This is what the LORD says: ‘cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD…but blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.” The Bible is very specific on where our trust should lie. In fact, in warns us not to put our trust in man, twice. Man will always disappoint. See, I was totally right about that trust exercise and I didn't need a knot on my head to prove it.
So then I got really confused because once again I thought love and trust were supposed to go together. So I looked up the definition of love, and the dictionary said that it is “a strong affection toward someone.” This definition, while making sense to me, seemed weak. But then I looked up what the bible says about love and loving others. And God directed me to 3 verses, 1 John 4:12 “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4:7-8 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” And 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8a “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with truth. It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” So I looked at these three verses and I at first I couldn’t make sense of it but once again God didn’t let me down.
The verse in Corinthians, which is a staple at weddings, tells us all the things that love does and doesn’t do. Just looking at that list, love seems impossible. I’ve seen good marriages, bad marriages and everything in between but I have never seen love do all of those things, at least not all at once. But God pieced it together for me, that’s because of our humanness. This type of perfect love only exists with God. Because 1 John 4:8 says GOD IS LOVE!!! The love that is always patient, and kind and trusts exists only when 1 John 4:12 comes into the picture and God lives in us and his love is made COMPLETE in us. Wow. That is an extraordinary kind of love. That is the same love that would make a Father give His son to die for the sins of the world. That is the same love that would choose 12 disciples that He knew would hurt him. That is the same love that would give up glory so that we could be reconciled with the Father. That is the kind of love that continues to love even if someone rejects it. Do you see now why I thought the dictionary definition was weak?
So this is what I learned in my random mumblings and musings this week. I must rely on God’s strength, ability and integrity in my life and trust that He is orchestrating every relationship and interaction. I have to allow Him to make His love perfect in me so that I can be patient, when someone is on my last nerve. So I can be kind to someone who has nothing but bad things to say to or about me. So I can celebrate other's successes and be humble when it’s my turn. So I can think about others over myself and forgive them when they hurt me. So I can protect them with prayer, and no matter what, keep loving them even if they can't or won't love me. That is where I will put my trust, I trust that as I continue to live, God will continue to perfect that type of love in me.
Love,
THE CHRISTIAN SINGLE WOMAN
I don’t know why but the Lord keeps dealing with me on this issue of trust. A few days ago, I spoke about how I have trouble trusting people for various reasons, although the two main reasons were my fear of being hurt and not really believing in the motives/abilities of people. Someone sent me a personal thought with regard to the blog and I thought the claim was interesting, so I decided to look into it a little further. The comment was that God never told us to trust anyone, He told us to love everyone. Now I thought that was a really fascinating concept, because I thought love and trust went together. So I asked the Lord if He could shed some light on that.
So the first thing I did was I looked up the definition of trust. I mean I have a basic understanding of what it means, but I wanted to know the real definition. So trust is defined as, "reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety of a person or thing; or confident expectation of something." That made sense. So then I looked up what the Bible says about trust and 2 scriptures stuck out to me. Micah 7:5 says “do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with the woman who lies in your embrace guard the words of your lips.” and Jeremiah 17:5, 7 and 8 says “This is what the LORD says: ‘cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD…but blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.” The Bible is very specific on where our trust should lie. In fact, in warns us not to put our trust in man, twice. Man will always disappoint. See, I was totally right about that trust exercise and I didn't need a knot on my head to prove it.
So then I got really confused because once again I thought love and trust were supposed to go together. So I looked up the definition of love, and the dictionary said that it is “a strong affection toward someone.” This definition, while making sense to me, seemed weak. But then I looked up what the bible says about love and loving others. And God directed me to 3 verses, 1 John 4:12 “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4:7-8 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” And 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8a “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with truth. It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” So I looked at these three verses and I at first I couldn’t make sense of it but once again God didn’t let me down.
The verse in Corinthians, which is a staple at weddings, tells us all the things that love does and doesn’t do. Just looking at that list, love seems impossible. I’ve seen good marriages, bad marriages and everything in between but I have never seen love do all of those things, at least not all at once. But God pieced it together for me, that’s because of our humanness. This type of perfect love only exists with God. Because 1 John 4:8 says GOD IS LOVE!!! The love that is always patient, and kind and trusts exists only when 1 John 4:12 comes into the picture and God lives in us and his love is made COMPLETE in us. Wow. That is an extraordinary kind of love. That is the same love that would make a Father give His son to die for the sins of the world. That is the same love that would choose 12 disciples that He knew would hurt him. That is the same love that would give up glory so that we could be reconciled with the Father. That is the kind of love that continues to love even if someone rejects it. Do you see now why I thought the dictionary definition was weak?
So this is what I learned in my random mumblings and musings this week. I must rely on God’s strength, ability and integrity in my life and trust that He is orchestrating every relationship and interaction. I have to allow Him to make His love perfect in me so that I can be patient, when someone is on my last nerve. So I can be kind to someone who has nothing but bad things to say to or about me. So I can celebrate other's successes and be humble when it’s my turn. So I can think about others over myself and forgive them when they hurt me. So I can protect them with prayer, and no matter what, keep loving them even if they can't or won't love me. That is where I will put my trust, I trust that as I continue to live, God will continue to perfect that type of love in me.
Love,
THE CHRISTIAN SINGLE WOMAN
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