Our Treasure Is Safe

Hope is the confident assurance that someone benevolent has things under control. When the goodness of the person in charge is in question or the confidence that things will be handled correctly is shaken people lose hope.

A person without hope must rely on whatever resources are at hand. They will despair, compromise or just try to take control of what they can.

Control requires effort.

"For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." 2 Timothy 1:12 KJV

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Matthew 6:19-21 KJV

"By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Romans 5:2 KJV

Faith gives us access to the knowledge that we are the beneficiaries of God's goodness and care. Pure grace is very stable.

If our work has to contribute to any of this it casts a shadow on our hope. That hope can truly be eclipsed in peoples lives if the Gospel of Grace is tampered with. Why? Because control is then shifted from God to us... or to other people. Anyone but God will prove to be unreliable. Treasure must be stored in a safe place for the soul to be at rest.

"and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:5 ESV

The human part of God's plan has been finished by Jesus. When that is revealed to us and we mix faith with the reality of God's gracious nature and that His far reaching plan has taken care us us in life and in death our inner being rejoices and we desire God to be revealed to others.

The only thing on my spiritual to do list today is to believe. Our treasure is safe.

"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." John 6:28-29 KJV

That is the 'obedience of the faith' that we are called to and we may even fail in that area and if we do we can say 'turn me and I will be turned.'

"Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, 'I believe; help my unbelief!' " Mark 9:24 ESV

A word of grace will restore our hope because it reestablishes who is in charge and the goodness of the One in charge. Every important thing that is ours is under His constant care.

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matthew 16:25-26 KJV

A believer in Christ has an anchor for the soul. Christ is the anchor of our soul and that anchor holds through every storm of life.

The Bible outlines God's plan for mankind from beginning to end. The future is safe. God has written all about what will be in broad strokes that no one can alter.

There is no need to live any part of the day with shadows cast over our hope. Our past is gone and our gracious God is in control of our present and our future. Our soul is safe. We can rest and worship from a place of rest.