Safe With God: When God’s Will Feels Risky
Throughout most of my adult life, I’ve held onto the maxim that declares, “The safest place in the world is the center of God’s will.” I take it to mean that whenever I’m walking in God’s will, I am also safe with God.
A few months ago, our family walked through a tough loss.
The loss led me to question much of what I believed about God. For the first time in many years, I didn’t feel safe with God. Following God had led me to a valley so dark that I felt anything but safe.
Safe With God?
As we navigated our loss, I was struck by the words of a familiar passage of Scripture.
Jesus just performed one of his most well-known miracles. He fed five thousand people with just a handful of food. As night descended, he sent his disciples across the lake in their small boat while he climbed a mountain to pray.
The disciples made their way across the water and found themselves in the center of a storm. The wind battered the boat, and the waves threatened to capsize it.
When God Sends You Into the Storm
We typically focus on the next part of the story, the part in which Jesus approaches while walking on the water, pulls Peter from the waves, and calms the storm.
As I read the account recently, I couldn’t stop thinking about the beginning of the story: Jesus intentionally sent his disciples into a storm.
This story gets me thinking about Jesus’ character. It becomes blatantly clear that God’s will is not always safe.
Just two paragraphs before the account of Jesus sending the disciples into a storm, in Matthew 14:1-12, John the Baptist was beheaded for preaching Christ. It was preaching Christ that drew the attention to John, landed him in prison, and ultimately resulted in his gruesome death.
There are countless examples of those who laid down the pursuit of safety to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. The Apostle Paul spent years in prison and was killed for the sake of the gospel. Steven was stoned. Most of the disciples were martyred.
So what does this mean for my comfortable Christian life thousands of years later?
Let’s look at three Truths about being safe with God.
Are we truly safe with God?
1. Following God does not assure protection from danger.
In our culture, safety implies protection from danger. It implies a life in which risk is minimal and there is little chance of pain, suffering, or injury. If we replace the word “safe” with the synonym “secure,” it’s easier to glean spiritual truth from this statement: “The most secure place is in the center of God’s will.”
The most secure place is in the center of God’s will. #Godswill #followingGod #Jesus Share on XWe are secure when the One who holds the future has us exactly where he wants us. Our lives are secure when we are obeying the Lord. We are secure when we walk with the assurance that we are following God with our whole hearts.
This kind of security has little to do with protection from physical harm or even death. This kind of security rests in the truth that we will not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Our trust is in the One who holds eternity in his hands.
Have you replaced the idea of God’s secure grip with your own expectations for a “safe” life? This might look like keeping your mind closed to the possibility of following God to a new job, a new relationship, or a new season of life that feels just a little out of control. Sit with this question for a moment, and allow God to speak into this part of your life.
2. God often calls us to follow him into uncertainty and risk.
I can step out in faith and risk when I cast off the idea that my Christian life is to be safe.
I recently wrote the most vulnerable article I’d ever written for a prominent publication. The thought that I needed to write the article had been pressing on me for over a year.
When I finally pressed the send button, nothing about it felt safe.
Following Jesus doesn’t often feel like a safe endeavor. He might call me to pray with a stranger or share my faith with someone who intimidates me. He might lead me to travel overseas. His guidance could nudge me to step into a new career endeavor.
Risk is never easy, but it’s always worthwhile.
We don’t take risks because we’re seeking adventure. Instead, we follow God into risk when he leads us outside our comfort zones for his purposes.
Let’s pause to pray about where God is calling us to follow him into risk today. Learning how to find God’s will starts in the small moments of everyday life. He might not lead you to Africa, but he will begin in your small suburban community.
3. God’s will does not negate trouble in life.
Jesus promised trouble in this world. He reminded his disciples that they’d need to lay down their lives to follow him, that there would be a cost, and that there would be personal sacrifice involved.
None of this is safe; however, the Lord uses our obedience to conform us to the image of himself, and this is worth the price.
Are you questioning God’s will in a hard season of life? There are times when trouble comes as a result of our sin, but there are other times when we face trouble because we live in a broken world. If you are facing trouble, refuse to grow offended. The hottest fires refine the purest silver.
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