So here we go again. Just when our 5 year old church plant had gotten a little settled in – all of a sudden we have to find a new place to rent for Sunday mornings. Here we go again – back to the beginning when we didn’t have it all figured out, we were not settled in, and our faith was pretty much all we had to go on. Those were hard days, but amazing days.
We all long to be settled. We long to have a sense of arriving, and resting. Yet as we look at Scripture – from Abraham to Moses to Josiah to Jeremiah to Peter to Paul – we see the Lord calling people out of their settled states. We see the same pattern in history: those who are willing to be unsettled and follow Jesus have changed the world. Do we have enough faith to be unsettled?
It is not easy to be unsettled. Elijah thought he was all alone, Jeremiah got depressed, Paul had angry outbursts. Being unsettled means we have to look for something else to be our security. When we are being challenged to step out in faith we realize how much we have depended on everything other than God for our security. When we have enough faith to step out and be unsettled, our faith grows to a new level. It is not always fun to find a new source of security. But if we can hear His voice, we will find the only true source of security that exists.
For some, being unsettled will be a season – a time they pass through where faith grows to a new level. Then they settle in again. I don’t think this is God’s big plan. An example is Gideon – who trusted God and saved his people. Later we see him not taking big steps for the Lord. Rather, he is asking people to treat him like a king and wait upon him. He got settled, and used the fame of his faith to become even more comfortable. When David settled in, bad things happened in his house – adultery and incest and rebellion. Jeremiah and Paul stayed unsettled in faith – and never stopped growing and changing the world. The Lord will continually call us to be settled only in Him – to step out and change the world with Him.
So here we go again. The Lord is calling us to leave our current rental and to step out and trust Him. I am hearing some people express some anxiety (that is ok!), and some are super excited (that is good too!). A lot of people are just going through some busy and tough seasons right now. Some are under spiritual attack; the enemy will attack those who are most dangerous to him. We are being unsettled. This is, well, unsettling. This is also the way we grow more and more and find the true security in Christ alone. The mission of our church is to grow people to be Fully Devoted Followers of Christ. The Lord is unsettling us to grow us to be more devoted to Himself. It is not about us, not about our comfort. We are being called to know Him and make a difference with Him. Here we go! Watch and see what the Lord will do, and how He will grow your faith as we move forward and seek to change the world with Him.
