What is the center of your life? What gives you confidence and hope for survival? Are you enjoying a good life today because of some wealth, investment, family member or friend?
Many people make the mistake of taking humans and human resources as the centre of their lives forgetting that people die, resources deplete, and wealth liquidates, only to be surprised by disappointments when these fail and then in their desolation blame God asking why their suffering. Little did they know that by their action they put God on trial. On this 14th day of our Lenten observance the Lord gives us three reasons why we should trust God and not man. If you wish to know, read slowly…
Jeremiah 17:5-10
The Lord says this: ‘A curse on the man who puts his trust in man, who relies on things of flesh, whose heart turns from the Lord. He is like dry scrub in the wastelands: if good comes, he has no eyes for it, he settles in the parched places of the wilderness, a salt land, uninhabited.
‘A blessing on the man who puts his trust in the Lord, with the Lord for his hope. He is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots to the stream: when the heat comes it feels no alarm, its foliage stays green; it has no worries in a year of drought, and never ceases to bear fruit.
POINTS FOR REFLECTION
Child of God, today the Lord presents to us the summary of the message of salvation contained in the word of God (the bible) broadly as two ways: the way of the Lord leading to life, and the way of the flesh, leading to death. These ways are also seen in the first psalm, teaching us that we must choose one at the expense of the other. Below are the three reasons why you should trust God and not man:
1. If you trust ‘man’ you are cursed: why cursed you asked me? Cursed because you rely on creatures which are ordered to perish and prone to misuse thereby leading to sin or causing one to deviate from God the source of life. That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit (Jn 3,6), and the works of the flesh leads to death (Gal 5:19-20).
2. ‘Men’ will fail you: just as humans die, are finite and liable to change, so also is human resources-wealth can liquidate over time and resources depletes, hence putting your trust in these things can make you a slave of these, and make you an idolater when you pursue their preservation. When these resources fail, those who have it changes and could become strange, and as a ripple effect, fails those who depend on them.
3. Depending on men blinds you from the opportunities set by God for you: remember depending on men is depending on what they consider surplus or excess. Everyone habitually work to care for basic needs and pleasure while reserving some as savings for the future. Charities and donations usually come from surplus income or sacrificing part of recurring needs. Now depending on men mean you are depending on their charities or donations. It is like an improper fraction- placing a heavy burden on a smaller denominator. Dependence limits you, while independence widens your horizon, visioning you the avenues available to explore and grow. Don’t make your children depend on you for everything. If you do, you kill them slowly denying them their god-given abilities of creative thinking. You are destroying them not making them.
TASK: Stop trusting your wealth, investments, men, etc, it can blind you from the things that matter: God and others around you, the way it blinded the rich man in the parable of Dives (the richman) and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31). The richman’s sin was ‘insensitivity to the needs of the poor.’ Even with his wealth he had no identity- he wasn’t given a name, but the poor man had a name-Lazarus, which means ‘God has helped’- a sign that he trusted in God, and so he was remembered and given an identity. (If you wish to “Discover your Destiny” from your name, CLICK HERE)
The bible says in Psalm 118:8-9:
it is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in men; it is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in princes.
Pray Psalm 146 now asking the Lord God to give you the strength to rely on him alone. God bless you.
This write-up has touched me in alot of beautiful ways. We need to daily put our roots straight into the stream of God’s abundant grace, and not on man that can fail you. Thank you Father for these words. God bless you!
Thanks my dear Tricia. I thank God for your life and how his Words transform you. I pray for a greater you in Jesus name. Amen