Hemmed In Safe, Secure, and Unafraid

These are challenging days around the world as sickness invades our lives and homes. Leaders must make decisions about an unpredictable future based on unprecedented circumstances. Uncertainty puts families on edge as work and childcare become limited or shut down completely. Losing control of our lives can be frightening, to say the least.

Yet, in these uncertain times, we are assured that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8 NIV). God is not the author of panic and fear. And, unlike humans, He doesn't scramble to come up with a plan for our future or arise from his throne to declare, "I didn't see this coming!" He is steadfast and in control of this world and all that it entails. Our comfort comes from knowing that God does not change like shifting shadows.

Photo by Dušan Smetana on Unsplash

Friend, there is something special you need to know. God sees you, in particular. He knows you by name and has prepared your days long before your conception. You are not just one among the masses left alone to figure out what to do in this time of uncertainty. Not only did God design you in the past, but He has also prepared a future. He has hemmed you in on all sides.

Imagine yourself standing in the middle of a walled courtyard. Fortified walls tower well above your head. You are boxed in on all sides. Even more, an armored ceiling protects you from above. You stand tall, confident, safe, and secure. This is exactly how it is with God. Psalm 139:1-18 tells us that God knows us intimately and protects us from behind, he has gone before, and his hand is upon our head. We need not be afraid.

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.