Philippians 3:3
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Our trust has to be completely in Christ alone.  We cannot trust our own apparent righteousness or goodness or obedience.  Put to the test, it would be found very lacking, indeed.  We have failed too much and too often to have any confidence in ourselves.  Our flesh would falter.  Our flesh would lead us astray.  Our flesh would ultimately fail and lead us straight to hell.  It is a flimsy and perilous thing to cling to.

So isn’t it so much better just to trust Jesus for everything?  Imagine all that He endured for our sakes.  It wasn’t just His time upon the cross that He gave for us, though those were His most difficult and agonizing moments.  He left heaven and had to live on this earth for more than 30 years.  He submitted to the Father’s will, though that meant cold and hunger and weariness.  He faced physical and emotional pain.  He died a cruel death, enduring an extreme of suffering we can’t imagine.  And if He was willing to do all that, how can we take His work so lightly?

When we trust too much in ourselves, we’re saying we can’t trust God.  When we’re trying to make our own way, we’re saying what Jesus did wasn’t good enough.  But when we surrender to Him, accept that gift and submit our wills to His, He calls us His children.  He takes us as His very own.  He gives us those faithful promises from His Word of what we can enjoy now while we’re still here but then also those things we can hope for in the future.  When we can let go completely of trying to earn something from God or trying to be something we can never be, then finally we can experience the refreshing fullness of His unending grace.

Can’t we just allow Jesus to be our everything and gratefully enjoy all that He gives to us?  Isn’t it such a relief to slip that burden off our shoulders and let Him take that heft that we would struggle under?  Can’t we find so much more joy in simply depending on the one we were made to rely on?  Jesus will never let us down.  He will never fail us.  He will never not be enough.  We may limit Him at times by the choices we make and the things we trust in, but when we forsake our flesh and cling to Jesus, we gain all those things contained in Him that we could never find within ourselves.