Standing … sure and secure in a shaking world.

“Whoever does these things will never be shaken.”  (Psalm 15:5B, NIV)

  Too often we feel shaky living in a shaking world.  We are anxious about the unstableness of our culture, societal changes and violent upheavals amongst us and in our world.  We try so hard to balance the aspects of our faith in our daily living as morality changes oftentimes quickly and unpredictably  around us.

      Sometimes we drift away from the truth in our lives. Sometimes we spend so much time concerned and focused on the awful and the terrible happenings around us that we forget to do good. Sometimes we let hurt and pain done to us cause us to inflict hurt and pain on others. Sometimes we do evil unto others. Sometimes we use our tongues to scar those around us with vindictive words. Sometimes we are not generous and we do not keep our word. The list is long when we do not hold to our faith and our character becomes shaky in the un-connectedness of our living with our faith. We are saved by grace of our Lord by which we rejoice but walking in grace by righteous living should be marked by our character traits which proclaim the security and solidness of the faith we trust in and the deeds we do.  Anything less and we find ourselves as shaky as the world we live in.

     To have peace instead of anxiety, we need to trust in the peace that passes understanding instead of the systems of the world. To feel secure in the grace and love given to us … we cannot but extend grace and forgiveness instead of retribution and revenge to those that hurt us. To not be controlled by evil done to us we must choose to not return evil unto our enemies. To honor the word of our promises, we must make our word truthful and sure. To be full of the love of God, we must remember the poor and be sincere in our generosity.

     God welcomes the humble, the honest and the righteous as He graciously forgives our failures and sins but to stand … sure and secure in a shaking world, we must trust in Him fully as we obey Him in our living.  It is in that forgiven, secured relationship through Jesus Christ that we desire and do the things that will not allow us to shaken or moved in a very shaky world.

     Meditate on these words of the Psalmist  with a humble heart.  Bring your failures before the Lord to receive forgiveness and ask for His Spirit to empower you to trust Him enough to live your days doing what He asks.  When we do those things we will stand … sure and secure in a shaking world.

“Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?

    Who may live on your holy mountain?

2 The one whose walk is blameless,

    who does what is righteous,

    who speaks the truth from their heart;

3 whose tongue utters no slander,

    who does no wrong to a neighbor,

    and casts no slur on others;

4 who despises a vile person

    but honors those who fear the Lord;

who keeps an oath even when it hurts,

    and does not change their mind;

5 who lends money to the poor without interest;

    who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things

    will never be shaken.”  (Psalm 15, NIV)