Have you ever found yourself thinking these thoughts? 

Once we’re fully supported, all will be well. 

We’ll be set as soon as our visas are approved. 

This landlord is different. We finally have a place we can call home.  

If we aren’t careful, financial support, visas, and homes can provide a false sense of security for those of us working overseas. Yes, these things can help us feel secure, but they are not eternally fixed. Most of us have experienced losing supporters, visa troubles, and being told yet again that we need to move. These things that help us feel secure can also suddenly crumble in a heap before us, along with our sense of security. We can be left with trembling and fearful hearts, uncertain of what is to come.  

It reminds me of Nehemiah, surveying the crumbled walls around Jerusalem. He was grieved at the news of the state of Jerusalem’s walls. He sought favor from King Artaxerxes to lead his people in a rebuilding project, which was successfully accomplished despite opposition. And, yet his security was not in those walls. Nehemiah stated firmly, “The God of heaven will give us success,” (Nehemiah 2:20a).

And there it is. Our only true security is our Heavenly Father. 

I believe God can use things in life to help us feel secure, but those things aren’t certain in and of themselves. Our Heavenly Father alone claims that role. True security is knowing that God holds us firmly and cannot have us snatched from His hands (John 10:28-29). It’s knowing that He loves us unconditionally simply because we are His, not from anything we do (or don’t do) (1 John 3:1). It’s knowing that God lavishes grace on us because He chose us from before the creation of the world, not because we earned it (Ephesians 1:4). Our security is firmed by what we know of our Heavenly Father, not by how our circumstances make us feel. So, the next time your heart melts when your sense of security falters, rest in the One who cannot be shaken.