Stability

I've said it before, you'll hear it again .... I LOVE the opportunity to hear lots of different people preach! What a great way to be presented tons of different thoughts that I'd likely never come up with on my own! (For the record, I also LOVE that my wonderful hubby puts them up here oakgrovecofc.org under the recordings tab so you can listen to them as we'll .... And he's recently been working on making the website even better looking!)

One of the 2 great sermons we heard on Sunday really got me thinking about stability. If I was titling the lesson it would have been something along the lines of "Knowledge is Power" - Larry made points about all the many wonderful things knowledge (of the scriptures and God's will) bring us. He included many things; understanding, fear of God, strength, etc. and one of the last points he made was that, when used correctly, knowledge increases stability.

There are SO many things that matter in our service to God, but it had been a while since I heard "stability" mentioned ... But here's the deal: Just Iike an employer doesn't want to hire an unstable person to work for them, God doesn't want unstable people working for Him, either! Colossians 1:22-23 reads "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight ... if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel..." (Established and Firm? Do not move? He's talking about stability!) Thankfully, unlike the employer who would just fire the unstable worker, God helps us out! Isaiah 33:6 reads "He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge...". He's given us everything we need find this stability. He's provided us with the words to study and find the knowledge and strength that stability takes. All we have to do is follow through and actually study!

The Marion-Webster dictionary defines stable as

1. "firmly established, not changing or fluctuating." ... Is your faith firmly established? What's more, is it firmly established in the correct things - the Bible?
2. Placed so as to resist forces tending to cause motion or change of motion. ... Can your faith, can you, resist the force of the world? Are you firmly grounded enough to hold up to peer pressure ? Work pressure? Stress of life pressure.
3. Steady in purpose: firm in resolution. Not subject to insecurity or emotional illness. Sane. ...well, are you? Now don't get me wrong - I completely understand there are mental illness beyond people's control that they do there best to work through daily. And that is fine. Each person can only do their personal best. But are you doing your best?

And you steady or wishy-washy? Are you calm and rational or easily worked up and emotional? Are you religious or just fanatical? Are your firm or easily swayed? Am I?

...funny how there are times everything seems to be hitting at the same point. After thinking about all this, for a class I am taking we were talking about how consistency is key in the classroom (see - told ya - employers don't want unstable people either). The point was made that it is simply tout possible to be "pretty consistent". You either are or you aren't. There is no "pretty". No "fairly". No "kind of". No has to mean no every time. Expectations have to be consistent in order for students to know them. Consistency is key for control.

Consistency. Stability. It isn't always easy - but then, we were never promised ease. So I'm continually working on it ... Are you? At moments when I am feeling a bit "unstable" I love to think through the song "Be Still My Soul" - it is a wonderful thing to know that we are not alone.