Today’s devotional is from Shiann, and is based on an idea from The Shack:
“A child is protected because she is loved not because she has the right to be protected.”
This one was also difficult for me. We desperately want this to be false. In America, we live as if everyone is entitled to everything. As if there is a right for each of us to be free and safe and not hungry and respected and generally comfortable. We've fought over this in wars on a national level as well as gang fights on local soil.
However, was this something promised by God? I propose to you that this not a promise anywhere I have seen in the Word. If I'm wrong, please show me!
God gives no promises of safety or comfort on this earth. In turn, we cannot give that promise to others.
We can work to teach our loved ones how to make safe choices. We can provide as safe an environment as possible. That is the loving thing to do. Yet should we be surprised when our cherished one gets hurt? We can mourn and hurt for the other but to expect that "it shouldn't happen to me" is not the way God sees things. It is simply not reality. Again, it hurts and others may need to pay consequences for making hurtful choices, but we cannot assume safety.
If God were going to protect anyone, would it not have been His only Son?! Yet what happened? He says if they did this to me, the one who performed miracles, what do you think they'll do to you?
We are to rise above the world; love and respect and protect a people that doesn't love or protect or respect us. We are to show them the love of our brother, Jesus, who leads the way. He proves to us love can be returned when there is hatred, hope for despair, courage for fear.
One who stands on a right to be safe is one that repels relationship.
It is no stretch to state God's heart breaks when His children hurt. He allows us to feel the pain as well. Hang on brothers and sisters. Hold to Him as you live courageously.
Blessings,
Shiann
