Are We Safe?

Are We Safe?

We’re all busy trying to stay safe.  “Safer at Home”, wear your mask, gloves vs. no gloves, grocery store vs. take out (how do we know they didn’t wipe their nose while they were wearing their gloves?), disinfectant wipes in our cars (did you wipe your keys?), somebody you know is getting tested, a friend wants to come visit (how long have they been in quarantine?), you have to take a trip for business and your daughter thinks you’re crazy….

How safe is Safe?  And what is the cost of trying to keep everybody safe?

My dear friend Corrine died last night.  It wasn’t Corona virus, it was age.  She was almost 90, and she gradually gave systems of her body over to God.  She trusted Him.  Her family was able to gather around her at home.  What a blessing for all of them. But were they safe?  What if they had been forced to stay apart to stay Safe like some of us in this season?  Safe....but what?

Can we ever really be safe?

When my son was 15 I gave him up for dead.  I didn’t think he would to live to adulthood because of the risks he was taking with drugs and alcohol.  I told God I would do my best, but I had to work and sleep— that He would have to be the One to watch all the time.  I prayed for his life, for a healthy respect for his own life, because he was 15 and “bullet proof” in his own mind.  I’m so grateful that God did answer that prayer, and Adam is now one of the most protective parents I know.  But he will find, I am confident, that in the end it is impossible to keep anyone completely Safe.

Does even our good God keep us Safe?  Was Jesus Safe?

  

Are we safe when we face city traffic, fly in a jet, jump a horse over a 4 foot fence, cross the street, run into the everyday trials of life?  Are we still safe when we get sick, sustain an injury, or get into a terrible argument with someone we love?

He keeps us from catastrophe many times.  He answers our prayers often.  But He doesn’t keep us out of trouble all the time, does He?  

He didn’t keep David out of trouble— but He brought him out of it.

He hasn’t kept me out of trouble— but He as brought me through it.

He hasn’t kept us free from danger, but He has kept us in the palm of His hand.  In fact, He won't ever forget us. He has our names inscribed on the palms of His hands… 

15 Can a woman forget her nursing child,

And not have compassion on the son of her womb?

Surely they may forget,

Yet I will not forget you.

16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

Isaiah 49:15,16

Through the fires and the floods of this life, God is forming us in the image of His Son (Romans 8:28, 29). We are Safe in that knowledge.  We can embrace the trouble, the bumps in the road, as the Hands of the Potter or the Sculptor forming us, chiseling sometimes, and rejoice that He cares so much for us that no one can pluck us out of His inscribed hands.  We are Safe now and will be eternally Safe in Him. 

Romans 8:31

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

Psalm 118

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever.

2 Let Israel now say,

“His mercy endures forever.”

3 Let the house of Aaron now say,

“His mercy endures forever.”

4 Let those who fear the Lord now say,

“His mercy endures forever.”

5 I called on the Lord in distress;

The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.

6 The Lord is on my side;

I will not fear.

What can man do to me?

7 The Lord is for me among those who help me;

Therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.

8 It is better to trust in the Lord

Than to put confidence in man.

9 It is better to trust in the Lord

Than to put confidence in princes.

10 All nations surrounded me,

But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

11 They surrounded me,

Yes, they surrounded me;

But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

12 They surrounded me like bees;

They were quenched like a fire of thorns;

For in the name of the Lord I will [a]destroy them.

13 You pushed me violently, that I might fall,

But the Lord helped me.

14 The Lord is my strength and song,

And He has become my salvation.

15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation

Is in the tents of the righteous;

The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted;

The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

17 I shall not die, but live,

And declare the works of the Lord.

18 The Lord has chastened me severely,

But He has not given me over to death.

19 Open to me the gates of righteousness;

I will go through them,

And I will praise the Lord.

20 This is the gate of the Lord,

Through which the righteous shall enter.

21 I will praise You,

For You have answered me,

And have become my salvation.

(Carefully read these last verses— they may have been the words to the hymn the Disciples sang on their way from the Upper Room to Gesthemane…)

22 The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone.

23 This was the Lord’s doing;

It is marvelous in our eyes.

24 This is the day the Lord has made;

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

25 Save now, I pray, O Lord;

O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity.

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.

27 God is the Lord,

And He has given us light;

Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.

28 You are my God, and I will praise You;

You are my God, I will exalt You.

29 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever.