SURE THING

sure (adj): firmly established

thing (noun): matter, entity

“…What God did in this case made it perfectly plain that his purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don’t do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative.” Romans 9:11

A sure thing is hard to come by. Most of the time, I find myself feeling very unsure about the stuff in my life.

-I worry about the health of the people close to me. Is it just a matter of time before the next scary diagnosis?

-I stress about the stock market as it dips and climbs and drops like a rollercoaster. Will we have enough for our future?

-After 30 years of teaching, I think about how many years I will continue at this full time pace…and what will life look like after I retire?

-I watch the news and wonder how our nation can possibly overcome the divisiveness that threatens our future. Can we possibly build back?

-I wonder where my sons will decide to live, what career choices they will make, whether or not they will have families. (Grand-dogs, however, are a sure thing).

Daily sources of uncertainty for me are the unpredictable things like weather, traffic, and what in the world the kindergarteners are going to come up with at school.  I want to know, I want to plan, I want to control.

But there is just not a lot in this life that we get to have control over. We worry and think ahead, but we don’t have enough power or knowledge to fix, to solve, or to change very many things. Our anxiety, our feelings of insecurity, our physical and mental stress levels just continue to increase until we take a deep breath and remember who does…

Jesus does.

His purpose is “a sure thing.” The only sure thing in our lives.  It is based in the security and strength of his eternal plan, and his ability to carry it out is firmly established.

And even more importantly, this God we look to is ever-faithful to us.

“If we give up on him, he does not give up–for there’s no way he can be false to himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13

What relief and rest begins to come over us when we acknowledge that God’s purpose doesn’t depend on anything we do or don’t do. It doesn’t depend on our ability, and it will not fail due to our lack of it.

God guarantees that every thing that matters forever will be accomplished.

 We can be sure of this, and we can be sure of him.

Invite Him in: In the middle of the swirling uncertainty in your life, can you stop and rest with Jesus for a minute? Let him take your fear and replace it with the reassurance that he is in control. Nothing can keep him from accomplishing his purpose; and nothing you do or don’t do is going to mess that up. He’ll make sure.