Back to the Future: Security

Last week our Sunday School lesson was on how we are to relate to the bosses we have in this world. Specifically, My Sunday School Teacher Eddie addressed our Christian response to bosses in the workplace. It caused me to think about all of the work related bosses I have had in the past.

I remembered one boss who used to couch his latest demand with the words job security. It always made me a little insecure because it was subject to his approval of my performance in this one mandate as to whether I kept my job or not. Oh, it was not stated in those terms but we all knew that was the way it was. We could look at the track record of people who did not meet his approval on a job assignment and how their contract for the next year was not renewed “because the budget could not justify their (existence – my word) position.” That’s a nice way of saying they were fired. I always felt self-doubt, uncertain, and anxious that I would not meet the expectation of the boss. I was vulnerable and unprotected of the future in this job.

I’m so glad that that is not how our relationship with our Heavenly Father works.

Paul was writing to the Corinthian church in his second letter and said that he wanted to come to them but wasn’t sure he could. He was vacillating back and forth on this issue and couldn’t give them a “yes” or “no” answer. But then he said something wonderful.

2 Corinthians 1:19-20 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ…was not Yes and No but in Him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory.

Paul said even though you couldn’t always count on him you could and can always count on God. If He promised it then it is a Yes. It does not depend on your performance. It does not depend on you at all. If He promised it then it is a Yes. This word, promises, in the New Testament Greek was nearly always attributed to divine assurances and was even used as a legality pointing back to the Old Testament promises. Paul was saying, “If we go back to promises made by God in the past, they are being kept as surely as His promises are being kept to us now and in the future. That’s where the “Back to the Future” comes in.

And that, my friends, is our security. We can say, “Amen.” Amen is a word that means “so be it.” Or as I used to explain to first graders in a little poem to remember: “Amen, I agree, that’s the way it’s gonna be.” It’s a resounding, Yes!

We don’t have to feel uncertain or anxious about our security in Christ.

We don’t have to feel vulnerable or unprotected of the future.

Our job security with Christ is not based on our performance but on His mercy.

From all the way back in the past to the eternal future

God is keeping and will keep His promises to us.

Amen

I agree

That’s the way it’s gonna be.

Security