Destabilization - Part 1

"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen." - 1 Peter 5:8-11 ESV

The roar is meant to be 'destabilizing'. The roar is meant to disorient potential prey.

"They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates." - Judges 5:11 KJV

The sound of arrows passing close to a person's head is meant to be destabilizing. People would drop their water and any other possessions to get to safety but there is a group that is delivered from that noise. The ones that 'rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD' those same people can also understand what Peter is talking about because they have a firm faith that isn't based solely on their present feelings.

"Jesus said to them, 'Have you never read in the Scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?' " - Matthew 21:42 ESV

Jesus is the cornerstone that was rejected but has been recognized by a group of people and that knowledge gives them stability. No roar or sound of an arrow will affect them because they have a stability that comes from understanding who Christ Is and what He has done.

Don't get me wrong. That roar is no joke. The roar of cancer. The roar of rejection. It makes a person want to run in a thousand directions at once just to get away but Jesus is above all that. Build on Him.

"For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw - each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward." - 1 Corinthians 3:11-14 ESV

My faith isn't built on a moral code or even a specific outcome. It rests in a person. Jesus knows me and He loves me anyway.

"At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, 'Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.' This phrase, 'Yet once more,' indicates the removal of things that are shaken - that is, things that have been made - in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." - Hebrews 12:26-29 ESV

The things that can be destabilized (shaken) will be destabilized. I want to build on the Rock that can't be moved. It is the wise place to build. It doesn't seem like the most convenient place but it is the most stable place. When the storm comes those who built on the Rock will have continued stability.

--