[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube[1], September 2020]
In the messiness and upheaval in life is it possible to be in control? Can I really have certainty in my life?
We’ve had a fair amount of uncertainty this week. Not only are the Brexit negotiations going a little bit haywire but also COVID restrictions have been increased and there’s a lot of uncertainty about what the future holds. Is there going to be a lockdown? Is there going to be a second spike? How can we find some certainty in all this? How can we find some stability? How can we feel in control again?
[00:44] Probably one of the things that we look forward the most in life is security, is control. We like to be in control because when we’re in control we feel less stressed, and it’s those situations in life where we feel that we’ve lost control that we find the most stressful. It could be a wedding, it could be a loss of a job, it could be the loss of a loved one, it could be sickness, it could be a house move. Those situations when no matter what you do, something comes up which makes things difficult, which makes things stressful. The only certainty that we can have in life is that there is no certainty.
[01:34] So how do we respond to this lack of security, this lack of certainty, this lack of control in life? Is there any way of getting it? I’ve got a tattoo on my forearm, it’s a picture of an anchor with the words “Firm and Secure” and this comes from a passage in Hebrews, a book in the New Testament. It’s a book written to a bunch of Christians who were in a difficult situation, they in danger of giving up and the writer of Hebrews wants to encourage them and he tells them these words in chapter 6 and verse 19:
“we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain”
[02:30] What the writer of Hebrews is talking about here is that because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, that we are held in place, in heaven basically. We’re anchored and our soul, our being is anchored in the heavenly realms and it’s firm and secure. That’s what an anchor does; in the storms it holds a boat in one place and likewise this anchor for the soul holds us firm and secure despite how the storms of life may rage, despite the uncertainties, despite the lack of control, we are firm and secure. Not because of anything that we have done, not because we’ve managed to control a situation. The reality is, we can’t. It’s a bit like when I remember our children having a toy steering wheel attached to their car seats so that they could feel like they’re driving the car and sometimes we can think that we’re in control, that we are steering our course through life. The reality is that we are not in the driver’s seat, that we have no control.
[03:49] And yet we can find security in life because of Jesus. Not certainty in the here and now because we’re just not certain of what is going to be happening around the corner but we have got a sure and certain hope for our future. Because of Jesus Christ, my ultimate destination is secure. Jesus, God, is in control and what I need to learn, what I need to rely on is not so much certainty and control but trust in Jesus.
[1] YouTube link: Can I Have Certainty in Life?
Bible references: Hebrews ch 6 v19
~~~~~~~~
.
Return to Mid-week Meditations
Jump to Index of Bible Passages
.
Contributed by Martin Shorey; © the Author
