True Stability
When everything seems turbulent, where is the source of true stability?
Sometimes it seems hard not to play the game. Whether it be at work or play, there always seems to be a subtle, or not so subtle, pressure to do things that are wrong, and we know they are wrong.
So we leave work early and let a colleague punch the clock for us. Everyone else does it.
So the product doesn’t do exactly what we advertise. You have to exaggerate a little. The competition does it.
So we didn’t report that cash job on our taxes. No one will ever know.
The temptation to fudge the truth is everywhere. It seems like what you have to do to get ahead.
God has a different way of getting the edge. He reports it in Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”
God contrasts the person who resists the status quo of the world’s “gray areas.” Blessed, or happy, is the one who delights in God’s truth and God’s word. On this side of the Cross, we understand this to be grounded in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who brings us into eternal life and unbroken fellowship with God because of the forgiveness we have in him. We live God’s truth because we have experienced God’s truth. This person will grow strong roots and will reap the long-term benefits of integrity and walking with God. It is the ultimate form of playing the long game. Regardless of how it looks, those who deny God’s word and play the world’s game do not end up ahead. Their end is destruction.
By God’s grace, let us pursue the uncommon path – trusting and practicing truth in Jesus Christ. It is, on God’s word, the path to true stability that lasts, in the here and now, and also for eternity.
In Christ,
Chris Heinss