Entrust Yourself to NO Man

Here is another avenue of living open-hearted. Jesus did not trust Himself to man, because He knew what was in a man. How can this position be open-hearted? Oh there is a huge answer.

But Jesus did not trust Himself unto them, for that He knew all men,
John 2:24 ASV

This scripture used to ring to me of self-protection. It communicated distrust in order to keep the upper hand.  I guess that revealed my heart.  I used to never want to be so vulnerable as to give another the power to deeply hurt me. I’d extend myself in the hopes of reciprocation, but I’d only extend my heart so far.  When I did this I lived more like a snail or turtle than a man.  I’d poke out of my self-protective shell and pull back at any sign of rejection. And I defined the above scripture with my own self-preserving evil.

Entrust Yourself to Love

The other side of the same coin was that I felt Jesus remained at arm’s length from me.  I thought He wasn’t fully opening His heart to me because I was untrustworthy. So this whole train of thought kept me contained within a self-protective shell. Jesus didn’t trust me and I couldn’t trust others.  Oh, this was such bondage.  And the actual bondage is being kept from LOVE. But I’ve learned that, in reality, my misconceptions could not be further from the truth.

To not entrust yourself to a man is freeing! Here is the reason: because you can’t be free to love when you are conscious of being slighted, betrayed or scorned. Love has to run free in the heart, unhindered.  Trusting yourself to a man is a hindrance to love. It’s a speed bump in love’s thoroughfare. We end up second-guessing each response and reaction, which prevents us from being true to the Spirit’s movement and the Father’s Will.  It makes us fair weather friends rather than being abandoned to the Father.

I’m seeing Jesus didn’t trust Himself by relying on man’s response to gauge His actions. The flattery in man’s words didn’t sway Him. He stayed His course regardless of the fickle hearts of men. Jesus pursued the Will of the Father and did only what He saw the Father doing. Jesus knew the evil and self-absorption of man, but this was no hindrance to His obedience. For Christ, it was all about the Will of the Father, not self-awareness and fear of rejection. Oh, how freeing!

Jesus didn’t entrust Himself to man, because He only entrusted Himself to the Father.

Trusting God in Obedience

Now, I’m not saying this is all that this scripture relates, but for me, this is a huge part. Trusting man binds Love’s flow. Love is Life-source and freedom, and to obstruct it is to prevent the full expression of Christ’s Life in me.  I rob everyone (and myself) from Christ’s resurrected Life in me.

My choice is to not resist the nature of Love by trusting in man. I purpose to love where He Loves—regardless of response. The world doesn’t need my expression of frail, human affection, but it does need Christ’s exuberant expression of passion for His children through me!