It is amazing how often Christians are heard praying, "Lord, keep her safe... keep him safe.... keep me safe." Those same words have come from my own lips more times than I can count. While asking for God's protection is great, I wonder if we have gone too far. Did Jesus
ever promise that we would be
safe?Here's a definition of SAFE:
1. Free from harm, injury, or risk; untouched or unthreatened by danger or injury; unharmed; unhurt; secure; whole; as, safe from disease; safe from storms; safe from foes2. Conferring safety; safe from harm; not exposing to danger; confining securely; not dangerous; to be relied upon; not dangerous; as, a safe harbor; a safe bridge, etc...He
has promised supernatural protection to those who fear Him and walk in His will, but our common idea of safety may actually be quite different from His. Ours is more of the "risk free, not exposing to danger; confining securely" idea rather than Christ's promise of "You will be persecuted. You will be hated. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul."*
Perhaps we confuse safety
in trouble with safety
from trouble.
I would encourage you to go to scripture. Do a Biblical study of "safe". How is it used in the Bible?
What does God say about it?My brother recently drove down to Mexico to minister alongside the Church there. The first night we received a call which scared us a little. He had arrived at the old church building (safely), and then waited about twenty minutes until the man who is living there arrived and let him in. This man is involved in a ministry that rescues girls out of sex slavery. (From what I heard of the story), he had been out of town, and when he got back he was told that there had been problems at the rescued girls' home (which is across the street) the last few nights. Men had been there pounding on windows and causing the problems, and so a confrontation of some sort was expected again. And my dear brother arrived right in the midst of it. Prayer requests went out to our whole church, and everyone began asking God for the safety and protection of Ian and the men involved in the ministry.
Now, it could have been easy to desire that my brother hop right back in the car and come home immediately. You know.... let's just keep him
away from all that risky stuff, surrounded with a wall of
fluffy pillows, where he can read his Bible and pray for the safety of those men far away in Mexico who are doing all that *ahem*
radical stuff.Don't misunderstand me. I love my brother dearly, more than you could know, and I greatly desire his well being. It's just that I've been doing some studying of God's Word, and now I find myself cheering him on instead of wanting him safe at home surrounded by pillows.
It seems that there is something within men that yearns for
adventure, risk, and rescue.Why else can they spend hours in front of computers and televisions killing bad guys, blowing up enemies, fighting battles, and gaining victories? What is in them that makes them so desire to be strong and brave and courageous?
I believe that Satan has a great victory in the deception of men. He has produced a brilliant counterfeit:
When you play this game, you feel brave. You are strong. Yes. Spend your energies on cheering for this football team; what a good battle to fight! You like to win, don't you? It makes you feel like a real man. (can't you just feel the slime?)
The problem is, we don't see that it is a counterfeit! It is not the real thing! Men
were made to fight... just for entirely different things!
A while back a heard that a local pastor had invited his two assistants over to his house on a Sunday afternoon to watch football.
"So?" you might ask, "What's wrong with that?"
How heart-breaking! Is that really all there is? Is there nothing more worthwhile to spend one's energy on? I'm not judging them, it's just that there has to be more. Can we really go home from church, having heard the GOSPEL, and then sit on the couch and cheer for a football team?
Please don't get me wrong. I know my own self very well. This complacency, this ease, this sluggish, comatose soul within me is most horrifying in the light of Christ's risen life.
What if that pastor and his assistants had spent the afternoon
praying?
I know these are not very comfortable things to think about. But I don't recall the Gospel being
comfortable either.
My brother has been driving around with the lead Rescue-man (may I call him that?) the past few days in what they call "the zone". They are looking for girls to rescue!
This excites me. Yes, it is risky. Yes, it is dangerous.
Yes, that is my brother you are taking along with you, mister! He's never been exposed to such things, he isn't your man to take along, find someone else! He's so innocent and naive. He would do much better in a ministry much tamer than this! No! This is the kind man that I have prayed he would become. The kind of manhood that is willing to take risks, willing to step out and fight. I love the words in Job 29, as he testifies of how he lived as a man:
"Because I delivered the poor who cried out,
the fatherless and the one who had no helper.
The blessing of the perishing man came upon me,
And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
My justice was like a robe and a turban.
I was eyes to the blind,
And I was feet to the lame.
I was a father to the poor,
And I searched out the case that I did not know.
I broke the fangs of the wicked,
And plucked the victim from his teeth."
-Job 29:12-17
Job was honored because of the way he lived, and surely any man such as this is worthy of honor and respect! I've heard it said that while women have Proverbs 31 as their example of true womanhood, men have Job 29 as their example of true manhood. I wholeheartedly agree. It is an awesome picture.
Few men are "willing to shoulder the full responsibility of manhood, to take the risks and make the sacrifices of courting and winning a wife, marrying her and fathering her children in obedience to the command to be fruitful"**, let alone risk their lives to rescue little girls out of slavery and "pluck the victim from his teeth"!
Few men are willing to lay down their video game controls and instead get down on their knees and ask God for the Spirit of Jesus and of Job--- to search out the case they do not know.
Ian, I am praying for you, cheering for you, excited for you, and honored to be called you sister.
I admire your courage to obey the Lord and go and serve in Mexico. I wish I was by your side! May the Lord teach you much of what it means to be a man, entirely seperated unto God and devoted to Him, dependent, obedient, and fruitful. I love you and miss you!
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Extra thoughts:
"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell,
I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell."
- C.T. Studd "
"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."
-G.K. Chesterton
And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives…and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted."
- Nate Saint
"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves."
-Christ
"Therefore prepare yourself and arise,
And speak to them all that I command you.
Do not be afraid of their faces,
Lest I dismay you before them...
They will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you.
For I am with you," says the LORD,
"to deliver you."
-Jeremiah 2:17, 19
"At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!
-2 Timothy 4:16-18
*Matthew 10
**Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart, page 166
