Numbers 13:1-3, 17-20
Every direction we turn, there are unknowns beyond our control. Risk is a reality that is built into the fabric of each of our lives. Whether or not we are consciously taking risks, we spend our days as risk-takers. I’m simply defining risk in this devotional as exposing ourselves to some sort of loss or danger, whether that loss or threat of danger is financial, physical, emotional, or social. Risk is a possibility in our lives because we don’t know what the outcome of our choices and actions will be. Even when we do our best to control all the factors, and calculate the outcome, we are taking a risk. You take risks when you board the plane, and when you choose to stay at home in “safety”. For there are billions upon billions of outcomes in the choices we make and risks we act upon. Yes, the plane could crash if you get on it, but it could also crash straight into your house if you choose to stay home. So, how do we rule out which risks are ones that will bring the most loss or danger?
Perhaps, it’s by lifting our heads to the opportunity on the other side of those risks? Or, what’s more certain, putting the hope of our outcome in the one who can take no risks. The one who orchestrates not only the ends, but the means to those ends. I’m not saying the Lord won’t lead us into and through risks or loss, but what I am saying is that choosing what is the most comfortable and self-serving risk, is not always the most God-honoring nor Christ-exalting risk. Think about the extreme social and cultural loss that can happen as you proclaim Christ as King in your workplace. Or, the fact that friends you’ve had for years may become distant acquaintances once you out yourself as a God-fearing Christ-follower. For some, the same actions may bring a threat to their lives. Those are real and severe losses and dangers that accompany the risks to live for Jesus. Yet, there is something that makes these risks the best and safest risks to take: The opportunity of what can be accomplished for the cause of the Gospel in a world that desperately needs it. What makes these risks “safer” and more certain than others? 1. The opportunity that’s involved in the outcome has eternal value and significance. 2. There is hope in taking risks for a God that has ordained the outcome.
There was opportunity that lay within the land flowing with milk and honey. Fruit of the land, good fertile soil, a land that could provide and produce. There was value in taking these risks to spy out the city for its unrealized potential. But what was more hopeful yet? The fact that the land was a “promised” land. “Explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.” The loss and dangers are not too big when we are held by the one who holds them in his hands. The risks are the safest when we pursue the providence of the one who can take no risks. There is no real loss at stake when we learn to be satisfied in the sovereignty of God for the contentedness of our weary and fearful souls.
Matt Hatton, Children’s Pastor
Every direction we turn, there are unknowns beyond our control. Risk is a reality that is built into the fabric of each of our lives. Whether or not we are consciously taking risks, we spend our days as risk-takers. I’m simply defining risk in this devotional as exposing ourselves to some sort of loss or danger, whether that loss or threat of danger is financial, physical, emotional, or social. Risk is a possibility in our lives because we don’t know what the outcome of our choices and actions will be. Even when we do our best to control all the factors, and calculate the outcome, we are taking a risk. You take risks when you board the plane, and when you choose to stay at home in “safety”. For there are billions upon billions of outcomes in the choices we make and risks we act upon. Yes, the plane could crash if you get on it, but it could also crash straight into your house if you choose to stay home. So, how do we rule out which risks are ones that will bring the most loss or danger?
Perhaps, it’s by lifting our heads to the opportunity on the other side of those risks? Or, what’s more certain, putting the hope of our outcome in the one who can take no risks. The one who orchestrates not only the ends, but the means to those ends. I’m not saying the Lord won’t lead us into and through risks or loss, but what I am saying is that choosing what is the most comfortable and self-serving risk, is not always the most God-honoring nor Christ-exalting risk. Think about the extreme social and cultural loss that can happen as you proclaim Christ as King in your workplace. Or, the fact that friends you’ve had for years may become distant acquaintances once you out yourself as a God-fearing Christ-follower. For some, the same actions may bring a threat to their lives. Those are real and severe losses and dangers that accompany the risks to live for Jesus. Yet, there is something that makes these risks the best and safest risks to take: The opportunity of what can be accomplished for the cause of the Gospel in a world that desperately needs it. What makes these risks “safer” and more certain than others? 1. The opportunity that’s involved in the outcome has eternal value and significance. 2. There is hope in taking risks for a God that has ordained the outcome.
There was opportunity that lay within the land flowing with milk and honey. Fruit of the land, good fertile soil, a land that could provide and produce. There was value in taking these risks to spy out the city for its unrealized potential. But what was more hopeful yet? The fact that the land was a “promised” land. “Explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.” The loss and dangers are not too big when we are held by the one who holds them in his hands. The risks are the safest when we pursue the providence of the one who can take no risks. There is no real loss at stake when we learn to be satisfied in the sovereignty of God for the contentedness of our weary and fearful souls.
Matt Hatton, Children’s Pastor
Posted in Devotional