Where Does Your Security Come From

What makes you feel secure, significant, and rock solid? Where does your confidence and hope in a successful future really come from? Be honest with yourself.

Is it your money, your health, your strength, your appearance, the things you own, the people who support you, or is it God?

Agur, the writer of Proverbs 30, is not someone we hear much about. He was a wise observer of life, not a king or a prophet with a platform. Just a man paying attention to how people live and what they trust. He writes,

“There are three things that strut proudly, really four that walk as if they were important: a lion, the proudest animal, which is strong and runs from nothing, a rooster, a male goat, and a king when his army is around him.” (Proverbs 30:29–31 NCV)

So what does this mean?

The purpose of Proverbs is often to warn us about pride, self reliance, false security, and wisdom. Agur uses pictures we can all recognize. The lion represents physical dominance. The rooster struts because it is visible and noticed. The goat stands confidently because of strength and balance. The king feels secure because he is surrounded by an army.

But what happens if you take away the strength, the platform, the balance, or the crowd? Honestly, for most of us, the strut disappears.

Let’s be clear. God is not praising these things. He is revealing them.

If I am honest, I love my health, especially being in remission with leukemia. I love stability. I love money, influence, support, and even the endorsement of people. I like knowing there is an army behind me.

But all of us really know that none of those things are permanent. Bodies deteriorate. People die. Finances fail. Systems fall apart. One day all of it collapses or comes to an end.

The Bible reminds me, “People are like grass, and all their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass dries up, the flower falls, but the word of our God lasts forever.” (Isaiah 40:6–8 NCV)

So what am I really standing on? What makes me strut? What makes you strut?

What do I lean on for my significance and my security? And when I am dying, how will any of those things help me? We already know none of them will matter then.

So why do we rely on and work so hard for temporary things?

There is one thing for sure. Jesus did not show up with an army or a platform. He came in weakness, obedience, humble means, and love. He took my sin, my pride, and my false securities to the cross.

“Christ himself carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we might stop living for sin and start living for what is right.” (1 Peter 2:24 NCV)

So what does “living for what is right” look like?

I think it may start with time with God. Time in His word. Really evaluating our motives and desires, and wanting to live out the things we learn in Scripture.

Let’s be honest about that too. Do we really spend time in His word? Do we take time to pray and analyze our relationship with God? What kind of relationship do you have with Him?

I think it may mean checking my heart when I start strutting instead of trusting and worshipping Him. Worshipping Christ. Asking the Holy Spirit for help and direction. It may mean holding temporary things loosely and anchoring my life daily in Christ. It means living as if Jesus really is my Lord and Savior, not just saying it.

I know it can sound churchy or religious. But the One who spoke creation into existence watches you, knows you, created you, protects you, and provides. My leukemia is in God’s hands.

“He protects everyone who loves him.” (Psalm 145:20 NCV)

I do not want to strut or depend on my own balance, strength, or an army of stuff around me. I want to depend on God. I want to be grateful for Jesus. I want to listen to the Holy Spirit. And I want to love others as myself.

This is the full life. The right life. The life God intends for you and me.

LORD, help me see You as my only source of strength and support. Help me keep my priorities in line. Help me live as if Jesus is my Lord and Savior, because that is my true strength. Help me live like I believe it. IJNIP amen ♥️