Reminders are important

Reminders can keep one out of trouble. My phone revs like a Harley Davidson to remind me of Gail’s birthday. It plays the eine kleine nachtmusik on marimbas a week before our wedding anniversary. As you can see, Steve Jobs has done his bit to keep my marriage on track!

Then there are those cars that boing melodiously when you have forgotten to plug your seatbelt in. Such reminders are particularly prolific, I have discovered, in cars with “limited” emblazoned on the side. Though I have never worked out in what way such cars are limited. And why brag about it if your car is limited anyway?

Well, so much for everyday reminders that keep us out of trouble. But I recently came across an impassioned reminder in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It is a reminder to put your confidence in the right place (Phil 3:1-11).

Nothing gives us confidence for this life and the next like “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (v8). The “knowing” spoken of here means two things: 1) accepting that God saved you through faith in Jesus alone, and 2) putting Jesus in the driver’s seat of your life. It is about being put right with God by believing in Jesus and as a result striving to live daily in faithful obedience to God and His Word.

Yet many people – especially those that “believe in God” – put their faith in a false confidence. Like trapeze artists, they are in freefall, hoping that one day God will catch them and reward them with eternal life. The basis for their confidence is that they always try to obey the Golden Rule; they never willingly hurt anybody else; they are GOOD people; they even may go to church or they may have a “private religion”.

I am sure that you know people like this. Sadly, their confidence is no confidence at all. They are depending on a system corrupted by human weakness, frailty and a tendency to sin – in short a fleshly system. Such people need to be changed on the inside. Like the Judaizers of old, they are depending on something external when what they need is an internal “circumcision of the heart”.

This brings me to today’s reminder. If you have friends, colleagues or family members with a false confidence, do not be lulled into a false sense of security over their eternal destination. It is tempting to start believing that good is good enough for God. It isn’t. Keep praying! Seize every opportunity! Don’t give up hope!

Cheers for now - Ian