Do you feel secure in the Lord?
OCTOBER 18, 2007 (THURSDAY) – The first baby boomer has filed for Social Security retirement benefits. She was born just after midnight on New Years Day 1946.
A high official in Washington immediately told us that many more will follow her and soon there will be no money left in the Social Security Trust Fund. This will happen because our government freely borrowed from the fund to spend it on something else. So, I suppose the balance sheet would show the money borrowed from the fund as an asset. Such are the ways of bookkeeping. (Believe me, there’s a lot more I would like to say on this subject, but I won’t). In all fairness, the fund is in trouble mainly because the number of people paying into the program are fewer and the number of people drawing money from the fund number many more. The ratio of contributors to recipients will soon be only two to one. The number crunchers tell us that 2017 is the year for the fund to begin operating at a deficit and the year 2041 is the year it goes bankrupt, unless changes are made in the system.
Not very many people want to think about that. They just want to know if their own Social Security retirement check is going to be there when they need it. As of today, the number of recipients is fifty-four million.
I suppose now would be a good time to ask about your “Total Security.” Upon what, or whom, do you depend for security? We have security alarm systems to secure our belongings and to help us feel safe. We have insurance to protect our stuff and to provide for others when we die. We build assets throughout our lifetime to keep from being broke in retirement. We try to do what we can for financial security, but what about our spiritual security? Do we feel secure no matter what may come our way in life?
We should.
Why? Because Jesus told us so.
He devoted a portion of the Sermon on the Mount to the subject of worry. He had one thing to say about it: “Don’t do it!” The Apostle Paul said he didn’t worry because the Lord supplied all his needs and would do the same for all the rest of us. He had placed his life in God’s hands and was satisfied with whatever God wanted to do with it. Do you feel secure in the Lord?
“So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
‘They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.’
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.” (Romans 8:31-39 The Message)
I’m happy when the bank reports to me that the United States Treasury has posted another month’s retirement check in my account. But my feelings of security depend on Someone Else. I hope you share those feelings with me. I hope you are trusting the Lord. Every day.