Trust in the Lord with all you heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your way submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

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Having security in the same phrase as dependency feels counterintuitive since most self-assurance in this world is paired with independence, financial well-being, beauty and popularity. I hear this same message from social media making it easy for me to become distracted from what true security really is. Most of the time I find myself fixated on being content with what I don’t have instead of thinking of who Christ is as the basis of my self-confidence or security. As all the things I don’t have in regards to security in this world, play loudly in the back of my mind, I know that the only thing that stops this tune from playing on repeat is the interruption of a louder voice.

While reading Genesis, I began to hear that louder voice. In this historical moment when God made Adam and Eve, the first counseling experience in human history occurred. God told Adam and Eve who they were and what they were to do and not do, “Be fruitful and multiply” and “do not eat of the tree of good and evil or you will surely die.” God instructed or counseled them and later another voice enters the scene, another counsel. This voice also provided instruction, but it was contrary to that of God’s. In fact, this counsel would make Adam and Eve deny God’s words as being true, making him a liar. It told them that apart from God they could have wisdom. Wisdom is not just knowledge but good judgment and though they were promised by the serpent to know good and evil when they ate the fruit, they would not be wise apart from God. Adam and Even believed Satan but ultimately God’s word trumped Satan’s, they would surely die. Through choosing to listen to wrong counsel, Adam and Eve and all of humanity henceforth would die. If any human could have had a better foundation for filtering through lies it would have been Adam and Eve who walked with God, knew him, and lived in perfection with him in the garden. However, when they listened to the lie of the serpent they were acting out of independence from God versus dependence on God.

Satan, as the ruler of this world is linked to every falsehood the world expresses and I have to remember that if there is no God in the world then they will be their own God. Independence and self-sufficiency is praised as being the antidote for my insecurity yet when I fail myself where will I turn to then? To who? I am among imperfect people. I need something outside of myself to guide me. I need a perfect being to lean on- God. When I feel insecure I know that if I listen to the voices telling me to find security in anything other than God, I will be left fragile and susceptible to worldly deception as Adam and Eve were. I know that those voices are invitations to live apart from God, not only from his wisdom, but from everything he is; good, faithful, loving, and gracious. If Satan’s voice is the echo of this world, in listening to it I am essentially believing God’s word is not true. God’s word reveals God as my security. The Lord says, do not fear for “I am your God” (Isaiah 41:10). When I feel hopeless I can say “the Lord sustains me” (Psalm 3:5) and when I feel consumed with the opinions of others I can remember God is my refuge (Proverbs 29:25). God has revealed that true security comes from depending on Christ, not in my own understanding or that of the worlds. It also comes from knowing the faithful God in whom I depend on.

Know

What are characteristics of God that that you can depend on for security?

1. In Control – Isaiah 46:9-10

“ Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose...”

2. Gracious- Ephesians 2:8-9

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one can boast.”

(Add scriptures to these attributes of God)

3. Loving-

4. Steadfast-

5. Gives Hope-

6. Strengthens me-

7. Faithful-