Safety In Obedience

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,
 for our “God is a consuming fire.”
Hebrews 12: 28 & 29

I would like to offer a special word of encouragement for those who may be feeling overwhelmed by the current storms impacting our world.

When my dad was ten years old, the “influenza pandemic” (H1N1) began a three-year march across the globe infecting 500 Million people, more than one in four of the world’s population. Governments closed theaters, churches and other gatherings to try to control the spread. It is difficult to know the exact numbers. According to Wikipedia, estimates of the death toll range from 17 million to 100 million. And this crisis started during the last year of World War I, a war that cost 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The bottom line is that it was a terrible time. Obviously, my father survived but he never forgot the deadly flu that lasted three years from January 1918 through December 1920. When you know the people, you remember.

Today, there is a global pandemic that threatens to infect and potentially kill more people than any illness in our lifetime. Only God knows what the actual outcome will be. We hope and pray that it will not be as severe as the flu was 100 years ago. Meanwhile, the financial impact on businesses and investments has already been devastating. In simple numbers the biggest gains in history were wiped out by the biggest losses in history. Major corporations have lost 30, 50, even 70% of their value because people are panicked.

The Psalms contain multiple references to the challenge of remaining stable when things are being shaken. Psalm 11:3 asks, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 16:8 answers, “I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” Psalm 21:7 says, “For the king trusts in the LORD; through the unfailing love of the Most High he will not be shaken.” Psalm 62:6 says, “Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.” It is the Lord alone who can keep us steady when the world around us seems to be falling apart.

Jesus offers two scenarios in Matthew 7. The person who hears God’s word and obeys it is like a man who builds his house upon the rock. When the inevitable storms come, that house stands firm. But the person who hears God’s word and does not put it into practice is like a man who builds his house upon the sand. When the storms came (and they always come), “the rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell —- and great was its collapse!”

In obedience to God there is safety! Build wisely and do not give in to fear!