Safe All Along: Finding Peace and Security in an Uncertain World

by Katie Davis Majors

I would think often of what C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”[10]

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”[19]

Our deep, abiding peace will come from resting in the promised hope of heaven.

There is no love without pain, no path to perfect peace that doesn’t lead us deep into the heart of hardship.

The more I make eternity the goal of my day, the less my thoughts spiral on other things.

Our story ends the same way it began: A faithful God chooses us, calls us beloved. When we find our home in Him, we find our deep peace, the peace He has always longed to lavish on us, on earth, as it will be in heaven.

I keep thinking of the four hundred years of silence between the last prophet of the Old Testament and the birth of Jesus, the Messiah. All those years of quiet and God was still moving, still working, still orchestrating His perfect redemption story. He was still intending to bring about the rescue of His beloved people through His precious Son. I wonder what it must have been like to live in that season of silence. How God’s people remained faithful and waited in anticipation all those years. How men like Simeon continued to look forward to the Messiah even with no outward indication that He would soon appear. No indication except the promises of God. Luke says that Simeon “was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel.”[14]

[God] crowns you with love and compassion….

As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.[16]

Here’s the thing: If there hadn’t been a cross and a tomb, there couldn’t have been a resurrection. And so often to have a front-row seat to redemption, we have to dive headfirst into the hard, into the dark. And through it all, we can wait in hope because we trust in God.

There is a reason Paul and the writer of Hebrews repeatedly refer to life as a race, a journey requiring perseverance, strength, and, above all, the help of the Spirit.[18] The race is long, but when we dedicate our next steps, our choices, our decisions, our very lives to the Lord, He will give us what we need. He will equip us for what is ahead, all the while holding the end in His loving hands.

Father, thank You that You are a God who makes promises to His people. Thank You that You are a God who keeps His promises. We confess that so often our current situation or circumstances do not seem light and momentary and we let our disappointment become all-consuming. Help us turn our gazes to You, to Your eternal glory. Thank You for the promise of eternity with You that we have to look forward to. Father, cause every other distraction and hardship to fall away in light of Your glorious

promises. Help us look forward to spending forever with You. Amen.

Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?… Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.[2]

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.[4]