False Security
"Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any" (Isaiah 44:8).
It could all be nothing more than gossip,” Caroline reassures herself. But it’s hard to dismiss the concern when the source is so reliable. Rumors have been circulating for weeks about a company-wide layoff, one that will surely include her husband if it happens. Caroline and her husband have always been grateful to God for his abundant provision. But now, faced with a pending layoff, Caroline wonders, “How will we afford the mortgage payments and the kids’ tuition? Our whole lifestyle will change!” She has become devastated by moment-by-moment, peace-killing dread.
Caroline’s exorbitant fear in the face of her husband’s job loss reveals that she has been depending more on God’s provision than on God himself. Are we like Caroline? Just because we assent to the truth that God is our rock does not mean we fully believe that truth. Sometimes the only way we can tell is how we react when life falls apart. When our paychecks cease, when our health declines, or when a loved one leaves us, then we will know what our real rock is. If it isn’t God himself, we are likely to feel just like Caroline does, because the thing on which we have been relying for safety is no longer providing the protection we have come to expect from it.
Trust
Lydia Brownback
An On-the-Go Devotional for women that focuses on Scripture's truths about what lies beneath our fears and how we can overcome them, so that we never have to live with chronic anxiety.
What is your rock—not the one you say is your rock, but the one you actually lean on? One way to know is to examine whatever has the power to make you anxious. What comes to mind just before you feel afraid? What circumstances are you facing today, or might have to face tomorrow, that overwhelm you with faith-quenching anxiety? On whom or what do you depend to get you through the day? “Whatever assumes in our lives a practical importance that is greater than God will become god to us. And since we become what we worship, to let an unanswerable problem become god to us is the surest way to guarantee that life will be characterized at its heart by defeat.”
Whatever that is in your life—a thing or idea or person or place—is sooner or later going to crumble. Jesus is the only rock that won’t ever break, and those who lean on him find God to be all they need.
From Trust: A Godly Woman's Adornment by Lydia Brownback.
