True Security

“When I felt secure, I said, ‘I will never be shaken.’ Lord, when You favored me, You made my royal mountain stand firm; but when You hid your face, I was dismayed” (Psalm 30:6-7 NIV).

How often do we let our spiritual security depend on our circumstances rather than on God? We feel “blessed and highly favored,” and therefore we believe we are secure. But when circumstances change and we can’t see God’s hand at work, we become dismayed and anxious. The whole book of Job illustrates this human tendency. Would Job ever have had reason to question God if he hadn’t lost everything?

We are prone to place our faith in what we can see instead of in God and His promises. Our prayers tend to reflect this. If all is well, we don’t pray much and we don’t seek God’s help and direction. But when life is uncertain and we realize we can’t rely on our own resources, we turn our attention back to God. Tim Keller wrote about this psalm,

“We often stroll through life, thinking everything will be fine, until suddenly it isn’t. Our unconscious or even verbalized though is ‘I’m solid. I’m on top of things. I’ve got it nailed. I’ve planned well. I’m secure.’ …But God shakes our confidence in our earthly life so that we can yearn for our heavenly life, where our joy is truly unshakable and where our wailing will be turned into dancing” (The Songs of Jesus, Feb. 24).

Wisdom says that we should seek God’s will in all things, but we often forget that step if we think we’ve got everything under control. Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” James wrote,

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil” (James 4:12-16).

This has been personal for me as I’ve been considering a big decision. I’m tempted to rely on my own wisdom and preparation, trusting in my own control and provision. But I want to know God’s will and follow His path. The last thing I would want is to choose my own way and find myself shaken and dismayed because I’m relying on myself and not God.

It’s hard for us sometimes because God doesn’t always give clear directions when we want them. There may be multiple options that are equally good and honoring to God. The question is whether we are focused on God and are trusting in Him or in ourselves. If we are prayerfully seeking His will, our steps will be secure because our faith is in Him. That’s not to say that God always lays out a smooth path in front of us, but that the condition of the path doesn’t matter to us if we are walking it in God’s presence.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God… Fear not, for I am with you” (Isaiah 43:2-3a, 5a).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Clean Hands and Pure Heart

The following quotes from Lead, by Paul David Tripp, seem all too apropos considering some of the recent news coming from Christian ministries.

“I have seen that when it comes to leaders’ struggle with sin, we tend to make unbiblical assumptions that cause us to be naïve and unprepared for battles that we will face in the life and ministry of leaders in our communities. It is not safe to assume that a seminary graduate is spiritually okay. It’s not safe to conclude that a very gifted leader is where he needs to be in his relationship with Jesus. It’s not necessarily true that a theologically insightful leader is spiritually mature. Ministry effectiveness is not to be confused with cleanness of heart. What you know about the public persona of a leader does not mean you do not need to be concerned about his private life” (181).

“Every leadership community should be clear that giftedness is not the same as spiritual maturity. Biblical literacy is not the same as spiritual maturity. We need to be clear that theological acumen is not the same as spiritual maturity. Ministry success is not the same as spiritual maturity. Popularity is not the same as spiritual maturity. Strategic insight is not the same as spiritual maturity” (196).

Revelations of ongoing, unrepentant sin make you wonder if a celebrity really was a Christian. (God alone knows.) The trust of the church has been betrayed on many occasions by many people.

None of us are completely free from temptation and sin. Jesus was the only person to live a perfect, sinless life. But by the grace of God we should be growing in obedience, humility, and integrity. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray He included, “Forgive us our debts… and lead us not into temptation” (Matt. 6:12-13). Why would He urge such prayers if in fact we are able by our own strength to avoid temptation and live free from sin? We are weak and fallible creatures, constantly in need of God’s power to sanctify us and conform us to the image of His Son.

Martin Luther, in the first sentence of his 95 Theses wrote, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ (Matthew 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Yet how many of us live that out day by day? How often are we blissfully unaware of, or hardened to, our sin?

King David, the “man after God’s own heart,” wrote in several of his psalms:

“Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression” (Psalm 19:13).

“Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in You” (Psalm 25:20).

“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me” (Psalm 32:1-4a).

“There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me” (Psalm 38:3-4).

May God, by His grace, reveal our sins and bring conviction and repentance before those sins bury us too deeply in the mire. May our pride be broken before it becomes presumption. May we be quick to turn to Him for the mercy of forgiveness and the cleansing we need.

“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation” (Psalm 24:3-5).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.