“But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.” John 2:24
Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Isn’t this how we are taught to live? If that’s the case, most of us stopped trusting others at a very young age. Maybe it was when your parents divorced. Or your fiancé broke up with you. Or your employer decided to “go in another direction.”
For me, it was in the church. We got close to a family. They left us. It broke me.
Jesus had to deal with this. John watched him navigate one heartbreak over the next. Crowds were fickle. His own siblings didn’t believe him. Peter denied him. Judas betrayed him.
Yet, when John sits down to write what he remembered about Jesus, he lets us know early on how Jesus navigated the heartbreaks and flightiness of people.
There was the massive crowd that followed him until the miracles stopped and the food ran out. There was the would-be disciples who made great promises but couldn’t leave their jobs and families. There were the committed disciples who fell asleep and eventually ran when he needed them most. There was even his own family who thought he was crazy and told him to come home.
Somehow Jesus knew who to trust… and how much to trust them.
“Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.” John 2:23-25 NIV
This was a skill John had to learn. To trust people without ENTRUSTING himself to them. In other words, he could love and empower others, but he only entrusted his heart, his worth, and his purpose to his Father.
His Father told him where to go, what to do, and what to value. And more importantly, his Father told him who he was.
John saw this in Jesus. And John began to practice this himself. When he was let down by church members, when he was betrayed by his Jewish relatives, and when he was persecuted by the state, he knew where his worth and purpose came from. He entrusted his heart to his Father.
You can do this too. You no longer have to be defined by those who broke your heart. Now you are defined by the one who holds your heart. This is the one you entrust.
Jesus shows us how to trust others by only entrusting our hearts to the Father. Because Jesus did this, we can learn how to be people who can trust others and entrust ourselves to our Heavenly Father.
Today’s prayer:
Heavenly Father, I entrust my heart to you.
Such a good word. I think this is so often why people fall out of relationships of any kind. We are created for longing and wholeness and when we try to find that in other people we will always inevitably be let down because we are all broken. Like a wonderful pastor I know has often shared, “expectations are predetermined resentments”. We can’t expect other broken people to fulfill what’s broken in us. We all need The Savior. When we know who we are because of Whose we are, we can be empowered by His Spirit to love and trust others because He first loved us. Entrusting our hearts to the Creator and Keeper of it is the key to our wholeness because He will never fail us.
Amazing word! This is a great reminder that I need to keep my eyes on my Savior. People will fail me but my Heavenly Father is faithful at all times💕
Thank you!