"Upon a Rock"

    Our assurance in Christ stands in stark contrast to the uncertainty of the present world in which we live.

    "Thou hast made the earth to tremble… And the Lord said, There is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock" (Psalm 60:2; Exodus 33:21).

    Even if we dot every "i" and cross every "t" of our existence, a trembling earth still means that no certainty exists about the conditions and circumstances of our tomorrows (or even our today).  We may increase the odds statistically of success, security, and better outcomes, but the present realm offers no guarantees to even the best planners among us regarding every contingency.  The Lord Jesus Christ spoke pointedly to this truth in the Gospel of Luke:

   "He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully.  And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do because I have no room to bestow my fruits?  And he said, This will I do, I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and goods.  And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.  Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.  But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.  Then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" (Luke 12:16:20).

   This is not to argue against wise preparation for contingencies to come.  We reap that which we sow in our current existence, and God Himself operates according to His "eternal purpose in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 6:7; Ephesians 3:11).  It nevertheless remains true that if we trust in our planning and preparation as a substitute for confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ, we must be hopeful that our Heavenly Father will cause the barns of our foolishness to tremble in order to illuminate our wayward confidence.  We trust in dust when we look to anything other than His promised "place by Me" as the rock upon which we stand.  Indeed, we plan and prepare from His security rather than to it, trusting that He will personally and particularly guide us for the future that is in fact to come, as opposed to that which might come.  As the old saying goes, "Proper planning prevents poor performance."  In a world such as this, our hope for "proper planning" requires the wisdom of the Great Planner Himself, even as Solomon blessedly promised…

"A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps."

(Proverbs 16:9)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."

(Colossians 3:16)