Monday, September 3, 2018

The Everlasting Arms

Friday, July 27, 2018
You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the Lord is your security.  He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap.  Proverbs 3:25-26(NLT)
The hymns we sing come back to haunt us sometimes; their theology is sound, but our sometimes weak (and only wishful) application of that theology is shaky at best.  One of those hymns got me a few weeks ago.  The hymn in question is one I have sung often since I first heard it as a child:  Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.  What stung me is the faulty way I have clung to the chorus of that hymn:
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.[2]
“Safe and secure” is a basic human need and desire; we all want to be safe, protected from the boogie man lurking in the closet, or under the bed.  But the fact remains we do not live in a world where that kind of peaceful security is the norm.  Just ask Job.  If anyone could have expected his borders were going to remain secure, it was the rich, respected man from Uz.  But Job’s life fell apart in an afternoon; health, wealth, family, position in the community, and even his clear skin were covered with violence and boils – the man lost everything.  It certainly seems like the destruction that comes from the wicked won out there; where were the everlasting arms that day?
And what about all the times YOU prayed for something – and that something never materialized? 
And what about those fires in California, mudslides in Indonesia, and all the murders?  What about Alzheimer’s, cancer, and the all the creeping-up that old age does on you?  Why do children die in their cribs, and serial killers get to live in prisons we pay for…or, worse…just get away with it?  Why?  Everlasting arms…really?
It becomes abundantly clear how misleading the hymn can be when we apply the thought of God’s care and protection to our lives merely from the point of what WE humans think we need, or worse, what we think we WANT.
Back to a couple of weeks ago when I was pondering this gap in my theological garment, as to why bad things happen if God is really on the job.  My DVR is set to record Dr. David Jeremiah while I’m at church on Sundays, and one day that week Elizabeth and I sat down to watch the recorded message.  The sermon was one in a series from Ecclesiastes, so he was preaching on this enigma of how God can claim He’s looking out for us, and yet, such terrible stuff happens.  And this meddling preacher jumped right into the chink in my thinking.  Here’s what he said:
You will never find security in the things God does, only in WHO God IS.  God is consistent in His nature, but totally unpredictable in what He does.[3]
Now that sounds contradictory; if God is loving, shouldn’t his actions be the same?  If God is patient with us, why not just hold off all the bad stuff till we get our act together?    Why don’t the everlasting arms keep all alarms away?
Well, that’s a good question, for which I still don’t have the answer, but suffice to say, I don’t need the answer yet.  Like Job, who questioned God’s motives about all his problems, and got an answer he wasn’t ready enough, or big enough to handle, God said:  Little man, you can’t see from up here where I see; chill out, I’m on your side.
If you need a Scripture verse to hang that on, here it is:
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:9(NLT)
For You Today
The bottom line is always that the everlasting arms are always on the job, and we can trust in God to keep us from harm; it’s just that we can’t see those arms when they’re busy wrapping around us, keeping the real hounds of hell at bay.  Keep your eyes higher than your problems; that’s where the real action is!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com
[2] Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, Elisha A. Hoffman & Anthony J. Showalter, 1887
[3] Dr. David Jeremiah, Turning Point Broadcast, July 11, 2018

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