
I trust in the Lord for protection.
So why do you say to me,
“Fly like a bird to the mountains for safety!” Psalm 11:1
Look, either you trust in the Lord or you do not. How can you say, “I trust in the Lord for protection,” and then head for the hills in order to protect yourself? If you trust in the Lord for protection, you don’t also go out of your way to protect yourself, just in case the Lord doesn’t do His job. In other words, we don’t live in fear while we mouth pious words about trusting the Lord.
There is certainly much to cause alarm these days, what with the pandemic and the political instability in this country. It’s enough to unsettle anybody. And yet we trust in the Lord. Well what is that trust? Is it just a bunch of words, or is it something solid where we can park our fear and leave it there?
In John 17:15, Jesus prays for us when He says, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” He’s not saying He wants to remove us from danger, but that He will protect us in the middle of danger.
For the last 30 years or more, Christians have sought to remove themselves from danger by creating an alternative subculture with a safer version of the scary world. That’s precisely how we got Christian schools and Christian bookstores selling Christian jewelry and Christian entertainment, even Christian news. That’s how “Christian” became an adjective instead of a noun. Insecurity formed a multi-billion-dollar industry that succeeded because of people’s fear of the world and their desire to be removed from it to a safer environment. So you could say we’ve been flying like birds to an alternative subculture for safety instead of trusting the Lord to protect us wherever we are in the world.
Which is where the Lord wants us now. In the world — the scary one — trusting in Him for protection like David did. Not running away to a safer place.
So knuckle under, Catch readers, and trust in the Lord wherever you are and remember that whatever happens, “the Lord is in his holy Temple; the Lord still rules from heaven” (Psalm 11:4).
No matter what happens, trust in the Lord for your protection.
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