Seesaw of Life

When I felt secure, I said,  ‘I shall never be shaken.’ 7 Lord, when you favoured me, you made my royal mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed. 8 To you, Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy: 9  ‘What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness? 10 Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me; Lord, be my help.’ 11 You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever. - Psalm 30:6-12

As Israel’s king, David’s life was filled with ups and downs. Sometimes by the hand of his enemies, sometimes by the hand of his own family, sometimes by his own hand. God has just delivered King David from danger....again. Verses 6-7 show how, even after a recent act of God’s deliverance, David slipped back into self-confidence by thinking of God’s favor as a right he somehow earned. But God shook his confidence in his earthly life so that David would learn to yearn for his heavenly life, where his joy would be truly unshakable and his wailing would be turned into dancing.

Like David, we often stroll through life thinking everything will be fine until suddenly, it isn’t. We easily slip into thoughts like, “I’m solid. I’m on top of things. I’ve got it nailed. I’ve planned well. I’m secure.” How easy it is for us to slip back into self-confidence by thinking of God’s favor as a right we have somehow earned. Our self-confidence comes from a deeply rooted self-centeredness in our hearts. And God shakes our confidence in our earthly life so that we learn to yearn for our heavenly one, where our joy will be truly unshakable and our wailing will be turned into dancing.

How has God shaken your confidence in your earthly life? A layoff? A firing? Are you being bullied? Maybe you suddenly find yourself in a situation with no idea of how you got there? Maybe you’re in a bad situation which was caused by someone else? We’re even so fragile and controlling that merely forgetting to water a house plant or not completing a to-do list for the day throws us off kilter and into a rash of anxiety and over-worry. How does faith in Jesus Christ provide the solution we need?

It all begins at the cross of Christ, also known as “The Gospel”.

How does the Gospel work in making your joy truly unshakable? The Cross shows that we are more sinful than we care to know and admit, that Jesus had to die for our sins to be forgiven. Our sin is so grave in God’s eyes that the only sufficient justice for it was for God Himself in Christ to shed his own blood on our behalf. There’s nothing we can do to pay off our debt. God had to pay it off for us on the Cross. That’s how dire our situation is. This truth should humble us and eradicate confidence in ourselves. The Cross also shows us how infinitely loved we are, that Jesus would gladly and willingly die for us. Dying for us was what he specifically came to earth to do. It wasn’t nails that kept Jesus on the Cross, he could have easily removed himself and together with his legions of angels, overtake his enemies. No, it was love that kept him on the cross. His immense love for us and the security it brings should relocate our confidence from ourselves to Him, and His resurrection gives us the power to do it.

Jesus was the most “secure” person to have ever lived. Jesus said in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one”. If somebody could say, “I’m solid. I’m on top of things. I’ve got it nailed. I’ve planned well. I’m secure”, it was Jesus. As God himself, Jesus could have been overconfident in himself from a human standpoint. He was God, but he didn’t count himself as equal with God, or his identity as something to be used to his own advantage. He didn’t feel entitled to any particular circumstances, rather he humbled himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil. 2:6-7). In his life and ultimately on the cross, he displayed the humility we need but don’t have, and the confidence in the Father’s love we need but don’t have. Through him, we get both. Jesus was a very confident person, but he wasn’t confident in himself rather he was confident in His Father in heaven. As a result, his life was marked by calm humility, peace, and unshakable joy, yet a powerful confidence that came from His Father.

Even in a life that will forever be affected by sin, we can progressively obtain this. In scripture, faith is the catalyst to what is called “being conformed to the image of Christ” (Romans 8:29), or in lay terms, becoming more and more like Christ. A life lived by confidence in ourselves is like a seesaw. Our days are marked by a teetering back and forth of anxiety and over-worry or a fragile peace dependent on our circumstances. We stroll through life thinking everything will be fine until suddenly, it isn’t. We easily slip into thoughts like, “I’m solid. I’m on top of things. I’ve got it nailed. I’ve planned well. I’m secure”, until you’re not any of those. When we believe in the Gospel, and our confidence is in God and Jesus’ work on the Cross, that seesaw balances out. A life lived by faith in light of this work is marked by calm humility and peace. The assurance we have from Him, that He has it all figured out and I don’t have to, allows us to settle into a peaceful confidence. The Cross is proof of that assurance. On the Cross, God provided for our greatest need of salvation. If we truly believe that, why wouldn’t He or couldn’t He provide for our smaller needs? The Cross is God saying, “You are not who you think you are, and I am more than you could ever imagine me to be. I’m the one who is solid here, I’m the one on top of things, I’ve got it nailed, I’m the one who has planned well, I’m the one who is secure, and in me you are secure.”

Nothing in the world can give us the humility we need to eradicate our self-confidence, and the securing love we need to relocate our confidence to God, than the Gospel. The path forward to living confidently with an unshakable joy no matter what happens is 1.) Putting our faith in Christ and His work on the Cross for us, 2.) Daily trusting him with everything in our life, 3.) Growing in our knowledge of both our sinfulness and God's love for us, 4.) In light of no. 3, growing in the shift from confidence in ourselves to confidence in God through Jesus Christ. 

Prayer: Father, I often stroll through life thinking everything will be fine, until it isn’t. When things happen suddenly, I don’t handle it well, and instead of grace and poise that glorifies you and bears witness to you, my response is anything but that. I’m anxious because I forget that only you are in control. I worry too much because I forget about your deep love and the sense of security you bring. Please help me remember and grow in the truth of the cross, and in light of what you’ve done for me in Jesus Christ, help me to rest in you and to be unshakable in hard times. Circumstances in my life will always be like a seesaw, but my emotions and responses don’t have to be. Help me balance the seesaw of my emotions and responses so that you can be glorified and people ask where I get my confidence from, and I can tell them...you. Help me to go to you like David, like Jesus. Turn my wailing into dancing. In Jesus' name, Amen.

- Pastor B.