“It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.” Psalm 18:8
“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.” Psalm 62:5
“Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD…Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.” Jeremiah 17:5-7
One morning I saw a t-shirt reading, “I don’t believe in humans.” Anything goes in this day and age, doesn’t it? I tend to take things pretty seriously, and this was no exception. Some might have laughed, or not noticed, and just gone on with their lives. That wasn’t the case with me. I noticed on the shirt what looked to be a demonic image, and I considered the message of the words written in big, thick, bold, and blatant ink. At first glance, it would seem tragic someone would wear such a shirt. How could someone not believe in humans? Would he be so broken, hurting, lost, lonely, depressed, abused, etc., that he would lose trust in people? Would lose faith in people? Would not believe in people? More than likely, the t-shirt’s designer, or the message’s author, was pointing the finger at, putting down, derogatorily referring to, spitefully disparaging, humans. We all know humans can be awful.
But that’s not what I considered when I saw the t-shirt. I considered that we humans are not supposed to place our faith, our trust, and our belief in humanity. Humans will all at one time or another fall short, fail, do wrong, etc. And when we place our expectations, our hope, our trust, our faith, our belief, in ourselves or other humans instead of in the Lord God almighty through faith in Christ, we will be let down at some point. This does not mean we are not to love people; we are commanded to love others. Nor does it mean we are not to have healthy relationships with people; we should. But our greatest love, our true faith, our genuine trust, our true expectation and hope, should be placed in God through the Lord Jesus Christ. For God’s love is forever and never fails, His mercy goes on for eternity, He is perfectly holy and always righteous, He is eternally true and never changes, He is always faithful, and He is everlastingly glorious.
When we solidly plant our faith in Christ as Lord, then when humans do let us down, we can through Christ love them, forgive them, and accept that they like all of us are fallible. I used to be immeasurably crushed when people hurt me and let me down. I would become heartbroken beyond imagination. It still hurts when people hurt me, but not like before. For my greatest love, in whom is my trust, faith, expectations, and hope forever, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Whose perfect love is forevermore!