Continuing to read A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson. We read the chapter on Security and I lead a short study on it today. I will share my study with you and the quotes from the book. Start by reading Psalm 125. This Psalm deals with feeling a sense of security in a world that is not very secure, and the fact that security comes from an authentic relationship with God. Below are some quotes from the book and some questions to consider:
Backsliding Christians (p. 84 & 91)
"Backsliding was everywhere and always an ominous possibility. Warnings were frequent and the sad consequences on public display. The mood was anxious and worried. I was taught to take my spiritual temperature every day, or at least every week; if it was not exactly “normal,” there was general panic. I got the feeling that backsliding was not something you did, it happened to you. It was an accident that intruded on the unwary or an attack that involved the undefended. . . When mountain climbers are on dangerous terrain, on the face of a cliff or the slopes of a glacier, they rope themselves together. Sometimes one of them slips and falls – backslides. But not everyone falls at once, and so those who are still on their feet are able to keep the backslider from falling away completely.”
How do we stop our own backsliding?
What impact does backsliding have on our sense of security?
How do we help keep other from backsliding without being judgmental?
Someone else built the fortress (p. 84-85)
“Living as a Christian is not walking a tightrope without a safety net high above a breathless crowd, many of whom would like nothing better than the morbid thrill of seeing you fall; it is sitting in a secure fortress. . . People of faith have the same needs for protection and security as anyone else. We are no better than others in that regard. What is different is that we find that we don’t have to build our own.”
Do you accept that fortress and all that it means?
Is it hard to accept the fortress that God provides?
A Saw-Toothed History (p. 87)
“But all this time, as we read that saw-toothed history (of Israel), we realize something solid and steady: they are always God’s people. God is steadfastly with them, in mercy and judgment, insistently gracious. We get the feeling that everything is done in the sure, certain environment of the God who redeems his people. And as we learn that, we learn to live not by our feelings about God but by the facts of God. . . My security comes from who God is, not from how I feel.”
How do we divorce our feelings from the facts?
How do we focus on who God is, not how we feel?
A Damoclean Sword (p. 88)
“Psalm 125 was written by a person who did not have anesthetics in his hospital or aspirin in his medicine chest and whose government did not have hundreds of billions of dollars to spend on national defense. Pain and suffering were most certainly part of his daily life. Why did they not destroy his confidence?”
A Nonnegotiable Contract (p. 90)
“We have our ups and downs, zealously believing one day and gloomily doubting the next, but he is faithful. We break our promises but he doesn’t break his. . . All the persons of faith I know are sinners, doubters, uneven performers. We are not secure because we are sure of ourselves but because we trust that God is sure of us. The opening phrase of the psalm is “Those who trust in God” – not those who trust in their performance, in their morals, in their righteousness, in their health, in their pastor, in their doctor, in their president, in their economy, in their nation – “those who trust in GOD.” Those who decide that God is for us and will make us whole eternally.”
Thinking of our ups and downs and the way that we stumble as Christians, yet the security we still have because of our relationship with God, the DC Talk song What if I stumble? came to mind. You can hear it here:
There are two parts of this song I really like, the introduction (which is on the original song and album, not just added):
The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today
Is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips
Then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.
That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
And one of the last lines that gets at the heart of security in a relationship with God:
I hear You whispering my name [You say]
"My love for You will never change" [never change]
No matter what we do as Christians, God's love for us will never change as long as we seek to be in an authentic relationship with Him. That, my friends, is security.
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