REJECTED SAFETY
By: Pastor Brian Huff
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.
Mathew 23:37 NLT
We have chickens at our house! Correction, MY WIFE has chickens at our house. For these chickens, I built a very luxurious home equipped with an upstairs roost and lower feeding and grazing area. I spent extra time burying wire chicken fencing around the coop, so that if a predator tries to dig and come up from underneath, it will run into the fence.
We often let them out to roam around the yard and enjoy fresh ground and surroundings. Every evening they make their way back to the coop to roost. Almost every evening they are in before nightfall, and we just go out to lock them in. The other day, the purpose was clarified in my thoughts: I really didn’t build the coop to keep them locked in; I built the coop to keep the predators locked out. My intention isn’t to confine them but to make sure they live through the night.
With that thought in mind, how often do you feel God is restricting? Why does He require worship and faith? Why do we have to stay away from sin and darkness? Why do we have a conscience? Why do we have to watch what we say and listen to? No one wants to feel confined and locked in a cage.
Remember, the fence isn’t to cage you in, it’s to keep you safe. God wants to lock you into His love with a confining embrace. Feel confined? Trust that confinement is freedom!! Some fences aren’t to keep you in—they are to keep the darkness out!!
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.
Mathew 23:37 NLT
We have chickens at our house! Correction, MY WIFE has chickens at our house. For these chickens, I built a very luxurious home equipped with an upstairs roost and lower feeding and grazing area. I spent extra time burying wire chicken fencing around the coop, so that if a predator tries to dig and come up from underneath, it will run into the fence.
We often let them out to roam around the yard and enjoy fresh ground and surroundings. Every evening they make their way back to the coop to roost. Almost every evening they are in before nightfall, and we just go out to lock them in. The other day, the purpose was clarified in my thoughts: I really didn’t build the coop to keep them locked in; I built the coop to keep the predators locked out. My intention isn’t to confine them but to make sure they live through the night.
With that thought in mind, how often do you feel God is restricting? Why does He require worship and faith? Why do we have to stay away from sin and darkness? Why do we have a conscience? Why do we have to watch what we say and listen to? No one wants to feel confined and locked in a cage.
Remember, the fence isn’t to cage you in, it’s to keep you safe. God wants to lock you into His love with a confining embrace. Feel confined? Trust that confinement is freedom!! Some fences aren’t to keep you in—they are to keep the darkness out!!