Mar 03 2022

And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.

In this verse, Job's friend Zophar is trying to encourage Job to trust the Lord despite the many troubles that have befallen him. A little later, Zophar tells Job that if he "stretches out his hand" toward God (v.13), he will be secure and find hope. Today, like Job, we have the same opportunity. Will we stretch out our hands to the Lord in the midst of whatever we are facing to find hope and safety in Him?

Stretching out our hands is the universal symbol for surrender. It's saying that we need help; we can't do this on our own. As Christians, we have already admitted that we needed Jesus to save us. We cannot become good enough to merit our own heavenly entrances. We surrender to God at the moment of our salvation, and we should surrender to him again and again when we, like Job, face trials of any kind.

When we surrender to the Lord, He takes our cause upon Himself. He secures us in His grip; he makes sure that nothing comes between us and Himself because the most important thing in our lives is our relationship with Him. Nothing is so painful or hard that it will inevitably take away our relationship with Jesus. When we surrender to the Lord, we will be able to endure.

Knowing that we are secure in the Lord gives us hope because we know that He is all-powerful and all-loving. He will not allow something to happen to us for the sake of harming us. While He does allow painful things to happen in our lives, they are not meant to wound us. Instead, they are the results of living in a world full of sin. Yet we have hope because we know they cannot overtake us. We know that even though we live in a broken world, our Savior is with us.

The Lord gives us rest in safety. This means we can rest in full confidence that He will keep us in His hands. While painful things will happen in our lives, the Lord will never remove Himself from us. If we surrender to Him by asking Him to help us, He will draw close to us in any battle we face.

Dear Lord, I thank you for caring about my safety. Thank you for being the author and provider of my hope. All of my hope is in you because you have saved me. I thank you for keeping me safe and secure in you and for guiding and loving me always. In Jesus' name, amen.

Mar 02 2022

The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.:

This proverb is a sweet reminder that we can always take refuge in the Lord. Sometimes the world throws lots of things our way. It tells lies about us, manipulates us, and mistreats us. It can make us feel alone and unwanted. However, the Lord is the opposite of the world. He will always protect us and always love us, and is always working for our good. We'll break apart this verse today to understand what it is telling us about the name of the Lord.

First, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. A strong tower is one that does not change or move. It can withstand battle after battle unharmed, and it will be a reliable refuge of safety when we need it. This is what the name of the Lord is like. The Lord will never change; He will always be there for us. His name has gone through many, many battles—but it is always the victor. In Revelation, we learn that His name is the ultimate victor.

Righteous people can run to this tower. Notice the qualifier: the tower is for people who are righteous. This doesn't mean we live perfect lives, but rather, that our sins have been covered by Jesus. We are righteous not of ourselves, but instead through Jesus, who, through grace, has paid the price for our sins. The only people who can be righteous are those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus and who are following after Him. We have to know the Lord to run to His tower.

When the righteous run to the tower, they are safe. The Lord offers us far more safety than the world can provide. The world might give us disposable income and security cameras on every entrance to our home, but Jesus offers us real, imperishable safety. He gives us the ability to cling to Him day by day. He has marked us as His own, as people who will be with Him in eternity forever. He has promised us that nothing will happen that violates His goodness or His sovereignty. The safety that the Lord provides is eternal. Regardless of what happens in our lives, we know who we are in Jesus and that we are children of God.

Dear Lord, thank you so much for your name. Your name is a strong tower, a place where I can rest when the world seems to be tossing me to and fro. I want to rest in your name, laying myself down at your feet and trusting in your goodness and love for me. I thank you that I can run to you in all circumstances, at all times. In Jesus' name, amen.


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