No, this is not a post about whether or not you have truly believed in Jesus for eternal life, or how to tell if you have truly trusted Jesus or not.

I want to encourage you to ask yourself whether or not you truly trust Jesus for other people.

That is, do you believe Jesus is able to lead other people into the kind of life He wants for them?

Do you Trust Jesus to Lead Other People?

Do you trust Jesus enough with your friends, your neighbors, and your family members to know that He will correct them when needed, teach them what they need to know, and lead them to where He wants, when He wants?

There are, of course, place for rules and guidelines, especially for parents raising children and other similar situations, but when it comes to trusting Jesus to guide and lead others in the journey He has for them, it is difficult to trust Jesus.

It is Difficult to Trust Jesus for Other People

Instead, what usually happens is this:

We are following Jesus as best as we know how, and one day, we come across a truth, or read an idea in a book, or discover something amazing about Scripture, or learn a key to defeating a certain sin in our life, or uncover a way to become more joyful, or find some tips for having a better marriage and family life, or whatever.

We are so excited about this (and rightly so), we want everyone else to know about it to. We create a program, a system, a set of rules, a practical guideline for others to follow, so that they can learn the same things we learned, and get to do the same things we do. This too, is fine. There is no problem with teaching others what we have learned also.

But then the problems start. Some people may try to follow our steps and fail. Or they read what we have written and they disagree. Or maybe they show absolutely no interest in anything we have to say.

In these cases, we see the “problems” in their life that would get fixed if they just learned and followed the same things we did.

When this happens, we get upset at the other people who “failed.” We want them to experience what we experienced, and get frustrated when we pour our hearts out to help people, and they reject it.

It is at this point that have stopped trusting Jesus to lead other people, just as He has led us. We have tried to substitute ourselves for Jesus, or our ideas for what others need next in their life for Jesus’ ideas.

We need to learn to trust Jesus to lead the lives of others in His own way and in His own time. He knows what each person needs and when they need it.

He knows better than we do where each person is in their life with Him. Maybe He knew that we were ready for a certain truth after we had been a Christians for two months, but another person is not ready for that same truth until they have been a Christian for two decades.

This, by the way, doesn’t mean we are “further along” the path of discipleship than they are, for it is quite likely that there are things which Jesus has taught that other person which we have not yet learned and will not learn for another three decades! We need to trust God to lead people in His own way and His own time.