This week's promise: God is our security

What is security?

Put on the whole armor, and take up your shield. Prepare for battle, and come to my aid.

Security is our nearness to God, not our distance from danger.

In the gun sights

When Ira Sankey was at the height of his ministry, he was traveling on a steamer in the Delaware River. Some passengers had seen his picture in the newspaper and knew he was associated with evangelist D. L. Moody. When they asked him to sing one of his own compositions, Sankey said he preferred a hymn by William Bradbury, "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us." One of the stanzas begins, "We are thine, do thou befriend us; be the guardian of our way."

When he finished, a man stepped out and inquired, "Were you in the army, Mr. Sankey?"

"Yes, I joined up in 1860."

"Did you ever do guard duty at night in Maryland, about 1862?"

"Yes, I did."

"Well, I was in the Confederate Army," said the stranger. "I saw you one night at Sharpsburg. I had you in my gun sight as you stood there in the light of the full moon. Just as I was about the pull the trigger, you began to sing. It was the same hymn you sang tonight," the man told an astonished Sankey. "I couldn't shoot you."

Life is filled with near misses. We know only a fraction of the many situations in which God preserves us from severe physical and emotional injury.

Adapted from Men of Integrity Devotional Bible with devotions from the editors of Men of Integrity, a publication of Christianity Today International (Tyndale, 2002), entry for May 14.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House