Trust is something on my mind today. Possibly because we're in a time of expectation and preparation. We are waiting for the fulfilment of Christ's promise to return to earth. A season, celebrating the hope we have in Christ. A season that celebrates the fulfilment of God's promise of a saviour, and who one day will return. That season is Advent.
Trust and hope have a close relationship. I like to think that I trust everyone unless I have a reason not to. That's a brave thing to do, but the alternative is to fear everyone else's actions, and I don't like the idea of doing that. The problem comes when we have reason not to trust any longer. When we have lost that hope in something, or someone.
I've never ruled anyone out in my life as untrustworthy, but I have had reason to lose trust in people. The difficult thing is coming to terms with their actions and moving on. That's where forgiveness comes into the equation.
Sometimes, things might look different to what they did before, but we must be prepared to forgive, so we can achieve that inner peace. A healing.
We all, I presume, have experienced people in our lives who have let us down, and led us to lose hope in general humanity. I too, only a while ago, was painfully let down by a close friend who wrote untruthful things behind my back and tried to cover them up when I approached them face to face. Today, they still don't realise I know the full extent of what they wrote about me. But regardless, I needed to forgive. A situation that forced an end, but also a beginning.
Without doubt, their actions hurt. My trust for them was knocked. My hope in them faded. It crushes you even more when you thought there was a relationship of sincere trust but realise there obviously wasn't.
God's hope in them has not disappeared, and so my hope should also not disappear. To do that would be doing an injustice to God, because of the hope He has in me. That is why He sent Jesus to die for us. He still has hope in us because He loves us. That includes you too! Even though we fail, His hope and love never does. If He can have hope in me even though I fail Him all the time, then the least I can do is have hope in others, because God does!
I've recently realised there are lots of hurting people in the world. And when we notice other people's hurt, it touches us and stirs the compassion within our hearts. We feel their hurt too. We want to help heal and restore. A majority of hurt comes from being let down by others, or when unexplainable, we blame a greater being(s).
I've got to my remind myself, that my trust should be purely in the One who has never let me down, never hurt me and never been deceitful towards me. My trust should be only in the One that loves me unconditionally and whose love never fails.
What would we be capable of if we lived knowing God's faithfulness, compared to relying on human weakness to see us through? Amazing thought! Why not trust in the One who has never failed you, and see where He leads you to?
If you've failed someone, the hardest but most honourable thing to do is say "sorry". If you feel that someone has failed you, remember especially this season, that the greatest has come and will come again. We live surrounded by human failure but also live with a love that will never leave us. Jesus. He who has already healed and restored us by his dying on the cross for me and you.
In God do I trust! Do you?
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