Unsecurely Secure

By Dwayne Moore

“Unsecured” means not protected and not free from danger or risk of loss. Security, on the other hand, has been described as a feeling of unshakable trust in predictable outcomes. Secure people know what to expect from life. They feel protected and can depend on others. Sometimes God leads His people into clearly unsecured environments and situations.

In Acts 21, Paul knew what he was potentially exposing himself to when he went unprotected into the Temple. He “publicly announced” when the men’s vows would be complete. Interesting how he probably didn’t even know these men. He had no ties or obligations to them, nor them to him. Why would he put himself in harm’s way for people he had no attachment to? And why be so vocal about his presence in the Temple? For that matter, why did he walk around town with a Gentile guy? Wasn’t that just making him look more suspect?

Clearly Paul wasn’t trying to avoid being noticed. He had no fear for his life and was taking no precautions to prevent harm to himself. Some might see this behavior as reckless and irresponsible. After all, he was a renowned man of God, a leader among Christians and churches, and he carried great insights and knowledge. Wouldn’t it have been prudent to try to protect such a one from possible harm and demise? He knew he could be harassed, even beaten and arrested. The Spirit had made that possibility abundantly clear to Paul in recent days in several places where he’d been.

Paul did not count his life as valuable to himself. That’s what he told those Ephesian leaders in Miletus. He said, “I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:22-23a). Paul wasn’t acting careless or irresponsibly in Jerusalem. He simply knew the LORD was with him.

Knowing the Lord as Savior and Father was all the security Paul needed. He had no security or protection of his own. His complete reliance was on God. He saw himself as “in Christ.” Paul’s life was literally hidden in Jesus. He knew that nothing could happen to him unless God allowed it. And since he had no regard for his own life or well-being, he simply trusted the Lord’s will to be done, no matter what that might be or mean to him personally.

Question: Are you that dependent on God, that secure in Him? Are you that surrendered to do His will above your own?

There is an important progression in chapters 20 and 21 of Acts. 1) Paul made it clear he was determined to finish the mission he’d received from the Lord. 2) The Holy Spirit told Paul to go to Jerusalem. The Spirit also told him he would suffer and be put in jail in “city after city” along his journey. 3) Paul said he didn’t know what might happen to him in Jerusalem, indicating God hadn’t revealed every detail to Paul. There were several unknowns that Paul had to contend with. Such unknowns could instill great fear in most people, but not Paul. 4) Godly and well-meaning people tried to talk Paul out of going. Yet, he wouldn’t be deterred. 5) Despite what he knew or didn’t know, Paul still walked directly toward danger and possible death. 6) And sure enough, what he thought might happen did happen: He was dragged out of the temple, beaten and arrested.

Everything Paul did and everything he went through served only to bring more glory to God. That was Paul’s goal all along. That was his deepest desire. Paul was dead to himself and alive to Christ. He’d been that way for a long time. Paul had truly taken up his cross, denied himself, and followed Jesus with his whole heart. The LORD expects nothing less from all His children.

Excerpt from the Nov. 9, 2024 entry of Dwayne’s Quiet Time Journal.

This article was recently featured in Dwayne Moore’s Quiet Time Journal, which you can subscribe to HERE.