How to be a Secure Woman

The Charlotte Chapel Women's Ministry are organising a special weekend with CWR in February 2007. As we've been putting together the publicity this week, I've been thinking about the title of one of the planned seminars: "How to be a Secure Woman." When my husband heard about this, he suggested the answer is to put a better lock on the door, but I'm quite sure it's not that kind of security that is in mind here!

I don't want to pre-empt what I'm sure will be a really useful seminar, but it has got me thinking about where we find our security - where do we place our trust? I'm slowly working my way through the book of Isaiah using Alec Motyer's commentary and today I was reading part of chapter 2. In verses 6-22, Isaiah calls the people of Judah to account for the way they have been living:

6 You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans.

7 Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.

8 Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.

They were mixing and making alliances with the nations around them, relying on material wealth and military strength, and worshipping gods of their own making. Motyer says:

Verse 6-9 contain things on which the nations pride themselves: broad minded tolerance (6), financial reserves (7a), military potential (7b), religious interest (8). These are not matters for pride, says Isaiah, but things which have brought low and humbled all alike.

The people of Judah were proud of their position and achievements and not doubt felt secure. However, verse 9 tells us that in fact, each one of them was to be humbled. Verses 10-21 detail how the LORD was to humble Judah and verse 22 states:

Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?

Although in the first instance, this prophecy was addressed to Isaiah's contemporaries, like much biblical prophecy, it also speaks to us today. It does not take much imagination to see the similarities between our own nation and Judah as described here. We can also see the relevance to our own lives. How easy it is to rely heavily on financial security, or the approval of those around us in order to feel secure, yet the Bible is clear that the only way to true security is to trust in God. In fact, Christ's death has achieved complete, eternal security for those who trust him and it makes no sense for us to look anywhere else for our hope. What am I trusting in today? If it is anything but Christ it is not secure at all.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose
He will not, He cannot desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,
He never will leave, He will never forsake.

Richard Keen