Much of our lives are spent chasing the myth of security. We seek to live in safe neighborhoods, work in good parts of town, and save to achieve financial security. So much time is spent pursuing the myth of security we rarely have time to think about living dangerously. Unless and until we are ready to sacrifice our own comfort and security, we will never be able to take the light of Jesus into the darkest places on earth.
If we won’t shine the light within us, who then will go and rescue the hopeless, the desperate, and the lost? Instead of pursuing the myth of security, we should be bounding headlong into the certainty of risk and danger.
Why would anyone want to live a life of danger and risk? The answer is more obvious than we’d like. We should live risky and dangerous lives because Jesus lived a risky and dangerous life. When we pledged our life to Christ, we surrendered everything to Him. Remember that moment? Nothing mattered but Jesus. No matter what you had in life, it all paled in the presence of His overwhelming love. To proclaim Him Lord of our lives means we will do whatever He tells us to do. It means we will go wherever He tells us to go. His unconditional love demands our unconditional obedience. It’s what we promised. It’s what we must deliver.
The love of Jesus doesn’t abate when we disobey. Nothing can change His unconditional love. The love of God is a given. What is up for grabs is our response. We can surrender or we can run away. Surrender is risky and dangerous. It destroys the myth of security. Security is a lie the devil loves to tell. Satan wants you to seek things outside the will of God, and the will of God is you obey His Word and live like Jesus.
Pursuing comfort, ease, and excess must not be the driver of our lives. Jesus promised if we followed Him, we would have trouble not security (John 16:33). Throughout history, His followers have been jeered, tortured, and killed. Following Jesus is not a path to safety and security. It is a path of homelessness, disownment, and hatred (Matthew 8:18-20; Matthew 10:21-22). There is no safety in following Jesus, but there is the certainty of deliverance in the end.
The myth of security is perhaps the greatest lie of Satan in our modern world. We are tempted to engage in selfish pursuits focused solely on our comfort and ease. The choice is simple. We can elect to chase after peace and security in this world and forfeit it for eternity, or we can eschew it in the here and now and gain it for life everlasting. The myth of security on earth is the temporal nature of the lie. Even if we achieve it in this life, we risk losing our eternity with Christ. That’s a risk not worth taking. I’d much rather risk whatever may come because of my obedience on earth than losing the only One who matters. Choose obedience over the lies of Satan. Choose Jesus and ignore the myth of security.