How can Christ be relevant to security?
How can Christ be relevant to security? Can Jesus make a difference when I feel insecure? How does God give me security?
The following example of Diane and George illustrates what can happen when we allow people and positions to fill what is missing in our lives. Unless I find Christ relevant to my life, I will look for counterfeits to provide satisfaction, fulfillment, and significance. But these counterfeits end in frustration, anger, turmoil, and rejection.
Diane felt out of control in her life.
Diane felt out of control in her life. When she met George she knew he was the answer to all her problems. He was a very successful businessman with many people in his employment. After twenty years with the same company, he knew exactly how things needed to be done. George also knew how to make sure things got done exactly the way they needed to be done. The employees knew George had a solution to every problem. Of course, George could tell them step by step how to accomplish the necessary task. His excellence in leadership had been awarded frequently.
Since George was so accustomed to running things in an orderly fashion at work, he shared his expertise with Diane all the time. “He says I do a wonderful job preparing the meals he likes, but I need to learn a little more about using spices. Yesterday I received a special lesson on folding the bath towels correctly. If I miss a weed in the flowerbeds, he is sure to show me exactly where it is. He continuously reminds me that if I just follow his instructions everything will run smoothly. I just don’t know what I would do without him, but there are some times when I would sure like to find out.” Diane did not have the solution for the frustration, anger, turmoil, and rejection she felt.
Diane thought George was the answer to all her problems.
In our evaluation of Diane, we can note that she looked to George, and her position as his wife to empower her life.
Diane was drawn to George by the very things that also seemed to repel her – security and control. When we posture to procure what God freely offers from a source other than Christ, we are sure to be made a slave of the counterfeit source.
Diane was empowered with George’s strong personality promising her security, but she failed to ask, “How can my relationship with Christ bring security and order?”
Security only comes when we find Christ relevant to our problems.
Unfortunately, most of us seek control and security apart from Christ because we have not lived in a relevant relationship that has taught us to trust His reality, love, and sovereignty. When we can live supported by the Three Pillars of Christianity – God is real, therefore He is relevant; God is love, therefore He is compassionate; and God is sovereign, therefore He is trustworthy; then we can find Him to be our reason for living, our resource for thriving, and our resolution to crisis. But if we insist that love, security, and significance can be found in people, positions, and possessions, then we will be empowered by what will ultimately disappoint.
Who will control your life?
In our evaluation of George, we can note that he looked to his employees and wife, as well as his positions as successful businessman and husband, to empower his life. George ordered his world, including the people around him, to find satisfaction, fulfillment, and significance. He felt very secure because of the people he controlled. But ultimately he truly felt insecure because Christ was not relevant to his security.
George operated with a philosophy that placed himself in the God-Place of everyone under his sphere of influence. Ironically, this placed everyone under his sphere of influence in his God-Place. If George could build people, make them efficient, and strengthen them, then George would have proof of his own significance. There would be further validation when all would arise and praise him with accolades of his personal greatness. While others thought they needed George as their mighty savior, he needed them to elevate him to that place. If George could get others to ascribe greatness to him, then he could be empowered to be god.
The appropriation of the first commandment, “You must not have any other god but me,” can produce the trauma of truth to bring George to brokenness and repentance. Submission and obedience are evidenced through a death to self that can continually motivate George in Christ’s redemptive process.
Only Christ can keep us ultimately secure.
Only through Christ do we have security now and in the hereafter. We are inadequate as the god of our own lives, and certainly we are inadequate as the god in anyone else’s life. Read more on how to find Christ relevant to every area of life in this post.
Insight Journal
- What empowers my life?
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Excerpts from Desperate Dependency by J. Kirk & Melanie D. Lewis.
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