Absolute Security or Absolute Insecurity

UV 1158/10,000 Absolute Security or Absolute Insecurity


When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether ist be done against a nation, or against a man only:


Job 34 v 29



It is so refreshing to return to the living waters of the Word- the feeling is like the splash of cool water on the face on a very hot summer day but the benefits outlast the feeling of the moment and go beyond a lifetime and beyond time and space into the generations next. When the Lord has ordained peace for us, who can create trouble for us? He is our shield as long as we yield to Him. When we resist Him in doubt or disbelief or disobedience, He hides His face from us and no one will be able to unveil it for us except at the time and way of His own choosing. There is no reproach for us as long as we approach Him. We are faced with the dilemma of choosing between absolute security in the Lord or absolute insecurity in His absence from our lives. Quietness or peace is not a given or not an assumption in life that we can take for granted. It comes from actively seeking and finding the One who can give it. Peace is a gift, a blessing, an anointing. His presence or our personal relationship with Him is the guarantee of His blessings. Moses more than anyone else in Biblical history knew this secret and therefore pleaded with God not to leave him or Israel.


The peace of God will keep us united with Him through the blood bond of Christ regardless of the circumstances. Christ is like the buckle that binds us to God. If the buckle is removed the bond breaks, the belt falls. As long as His presence is with us, His peace is with us. His light shines upon us. His face radiates and shines upon us and our own. We are blessed of the Lord and not of our own making. He will give us rest all round from our enemies and our troubles. He anchors our minds. We are at rest from our sorrow and from our fear and from the bondage to sin and death. We will be preserved from evil from within and from without. We will do the work of righteousness the Lord has willed us to do and the effect of that is peace, security and assurance all round. Our hearts will not be neither troubled nor afraid. Our minds will be focussed on Him and we will have peace of mind, unity of purpose and hope eternal. It is the kind of peace that cannot be explained rationally. It is the kind of peace that the world and anything in it cannot detract or reduce. Nobody and nothing can affect it, disturb it or take it away. When we have the Lord’s favour or His grace, we stand strong like a mountain, unshakeable, immovable and enduring. We will have peace and joy bubbling like a river flowing down from that mountain. Joy is indeed the byproduct of peace. Each of us occupies space and time. How much of that space and time do we reserve for our Lord, Creator and Redeemer? That determines whether we are truly seeking Him or whether we are just going through the motions.


In contrast, when the Lord hides His face from us or takes His presence away from us, we will be greatly troubled. Our minds will be in a state of civil war with ourselves. Nothing we do and no one can give us a sense of peace, neither medicine nor physician nor psychiatrist. When He breaks one down, he cannot be built again. When He shuts us up, we cannot find an opening again. His decision is final and irrevocable even as His mercy is enduring. The recent suicide of the famous Hollywood actor Robin Williams is a case in point. He had everything in life: the looks, the talent, the glamour, the wealth, the fame, recognition and popularity. He made millions laugh and entertained them but it did not save him from an unexplained intense depression that led him to take his life with his own belt. He had neither searched nor found the peace of God in His life. The buckle was missing and the belt strangulated him. Death is the byproduct of depression. In a crowded life with no space or time for God , the Lord hides His face and one cannot find Him. As Paul Coelho the modern parable writer says: “What is success? It is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace.” But how does one find peace in the soul=the answer is Christ. He gives the anointing of peace for He has been anointed to be the guarantor of our peace. He gives the answer of peace for every question and every trouble in our lives. This principle of life and leadership applies universally not just to individuals but to organisations and nations too. The Lord is consistent in the way He deals with people whether it is one individual like you or me or a billion people. The Lord hid Himself from His beloved and chosen nation Israel from time to time as they rebelled against Him. They had the greatest victories as long as He was with them and when He hid His face, they went through the greatest of human tragedies, a people dispossessed and persecuted, subjected to the worst possible of human tragedies.



Prateep V Philip