Others May Fail You But God Never Will

Someone told me yesterday that I was looking “all tan and summery and healthy,” and they said it in a way that made it sound like I was really looking terrific. It was a great compliment, but what really struck me about it is that this person knows that I’ve been going through a very stressful time, and it was almost as if they were negating the fact that I’d been under stress because they saw me as looking "tan and summery and healthy." There is something that God will do for us when we are dealing with oppression and stress and going through a trial – He will pour out the blessings to help us feel supported through the trial, and no one will know what we’re really going through because we so obviously have His blessing over our lives. I know how I feel, but I must have been literally glowing with the grace and blessing of God because I got the feeling that this person who said what they said didn’t see the stress at all.

In Psalm 23, there is a passage in verse 5 that I’ve written about here before, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” It is in that place where we are surrounded by the enemies to our soul – those people and things that come against us, our own fears and doubts and confusion – in that place is where the Lord will lay the table of abundance before us, it is where He will give us the anointing, and we will overflow with His blessing and grace.

It can be a hard thing to get used to, this appearance of blessing when we are not feeling blessed, because for me at least I like a good pity party – I like to have people’s sympathy and it feels like I’m more supported when people understand what I’m going through. But the truth is that the Lord is all the support that we need, and when we rely on other people we will invariably be let down. There are things that only God can do, and when we are left to rely solely on Him, we truly are able to see His glory and His mercy and His love and His blessing in our lives.

The person who told me how great I was looking yesterday is someone who I have looked to for help and support in the past, and I know that the Lord was telling me that I can’t look there for support in what I am dealing with now because it’s not about what any human can do, it’s about what He can do and will do if I allow Him to. It’s not to say that there won’t be times when people will help us and that’s ok – it’s just that in this particular situation, the Lord was showing me specifically that it’s all about Him and what He can do.

It’s not a comfortable place to be in, because it is so much a part of my human experience to try to rely on other people. And I know I’m not the only one. A woman I know was talking to me about an experience she was dealing with a few months ago, and she had asked for help from someone who had not helped her at all and had in fact betrayed her. She used the words, “I had expected that she would support me and that she’d have my back,” and I remember at the time thinking that she should have been able to trust this other woman in that situation because I knew the woman she was talking about and that was her role and was also the way she always presented herself. But I also remember saying to this woman that we can’t rely on people because they can let us down. Now that I’m seeing it in my own life, I remember that time and know the Lord was preparing me for this time in my life now.

There's a saying I've heard that I often say, "Others may fail you but God never will." I know it's based on scripture and when I looked it up, I found an article written by Rick Piña titled “God Will Never Fail You!” http://todaysword.org/2011/07/31/god-will-never-fail-you/. He starts with Proverbs 25:19 from the New Living Translation, “Putting confidence in an unreliable person in times of trouble is like chewing with a broken tooth or walking on a lame foot.” It’s a great article, and I’ll put some highlights here that spoke to me deeply, but there’s so much that’s important there, so please do read it for yourself.

In the first paragraph, Rick Piña writes “For an unreliable person to fail us is one thing, but to fail in times of trouble, when we are counting on them to truly make a difference for us, makes the sting of the disappointment even worse.” He continues on, “It would be bad enough if they were unreliable all by themselves; ruining their own lives. But when they make promises to be there for you, and you are foolish enough to count on them, then their unreliability becomes a stumbling block for you as well.” When I read that, I had an “ouch” moment because of the phrase, “and you are foolish enough to count on them,” because I know that it’s foolish to count on people but I still do. I’d like to believe that I can, but the reality is that there will be times that even people who we have been able to trust in the past become for whatever reason unreliable in the current situation we are facing. It may be because they don’t know how to help us, it may be because they are going through their own struggle, it may be that something has changed in our relationship with them for whatever reason. It may be for any number of reasons, and the reason doesn’t really matter. What matters is that we were counting on them and they failed us, and that is something that each one of us may face at least once in our lives.

Rick Piña writes, “I wish I could tell you that once you gave your life to Christ that you would never have another disappointment, but you and I both know that would be a lie. The truth is that life in Christ is not without its share of challenges, and the sad reality is that sometimes you have to face those challenges all alone. Humanly speaking, there will be times – especially when the going gets rough – that you will have to face challenges without the assistance of others; but you can find rest in the fact that we serve a God who will never leave us or forsake us.”

It is not that we should not have relationships of trust and love with other people – that is what God wants for us. Rick Piña puts it this way, “I don’t want to put a bad taste in your mouth toward others, because God wants us to have rewarding and fulfilling relationships, but ultimately your trust must be in God! Even when others leave, God is still there!”

When we know that truth in the deepest place of our heart, soul and mind, we will be able to continue to walk through the toughest of times, knowing that God is with us through everything. And when we face the disappointment and pain of having someone fail us who we thought we could count on, that pain will not become bitterness, but rather will become a place where we can turn back to God and hold onto Him more tightly.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan