Kept Safe

We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. 1 John 5:18

WE ALL WANT TO KEEP OUR KIDS SAFE. And in a world that can seem so very threatening, we want to assure them that they are safe. But what safety can we truly promise our kids in this world? Christians get all the same cancers and experience all the same catastrophes as everyone else. More than that, many Christians are targeted and mistreated around the world specifically because they are believers. Jesus told his disciples that “there will be great earthquakes, and there will be famines and plagues in many lands, and there will be terrifying things. . . . There will be a time of great persecution. You will be dragged into synagogues and prisons, and you will stand trial before kings and governors because you are my followers. . . . Your parents, brothers, relatives, and friends . . . will betray you. They will even kill some of you” (Luke 21:11-12, 16). Then, having told them that some of them would be killed, he added something that might seem strange: “But not a hair of your head will perish!” (Luke 21:18).

How do we put these two things together in our minds, and just as importantly, how do we communicate them to our children so they can rest in the perfect safety provided to all who are in Christ? John says about all of those who are joined to him, “God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them.” While Satan wants to harm us and our children, and to have us for eternity, Christ has taken us from the clutches of the evil one. Once Christ has laid hold of us, once his life flows into ours, nothing and no one can take that life. Once our children are in his hands, they are beyond Satan’s grasp.

We simply can’t promise perfect physical safety to our children in this world. And yet we can assure them that if they are in Christ, they are perfectly and eternally safe. The fallenness of this world might impact them, and the enemy might tempt them, but the evil one can never have them. Christ died to save them, and he lives to keep them. He intercedes for them at the right hand of the Father. He has purchased them with his own blood, and he will never let them go.

Lord, you are Lord over even the evil one. All who belong to you are perfectly and eternally safe. And all who are opposed to you are completely and eternally condemned. Take ________ to yourself. Hold ________ securely.