LORD, SETTLE ME IN DESTINY

“And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was FOUNDED on the ROCK” – Matthew 7:25

Beloved, please join me to meditate and pray: “LORD, SETTLE ME IN DESTINY”! God has promised to perfect, establish, strengthen and SETTLE you (1Pet.5:10). For the God of Grace to ‘settle’ you means for Him to stabilise you securely; to found you as an house upon a rock, to establish you on a firm foundation, to root you firmly in the truth of grace, to cause you to rest so calmly and firmly upon the best and surest foundation; and to be complete in every good thing. The architectural term ‘themelioses’ alludes to a house which is so firmly fixed on a foundation that it will not be moved by winds and floods: “And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was FOUNDED on the ROCK” (v.25). The God of all grace will make you stable, solid, firmly fixed on the Rock of your salvation, resolutely setting your will toward fulfilling divine purpose while preparing for your eternal home.

One who is settled by and in God has been placed so as to stay and secured permanently. He or she has ceased drifting in destiny and wandering in life’s wilderness. To be settled does not mean to become flaccid, numb, apathetic or lethargic. It does not infer reaching a plateau of passivity or feeling that one has “arrived.” Paul the apostle was settled in dynamic and faithful ministry, yet he declared: “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me” (Phi.3:12). To be settled in destiny is to be divinely ushered into the realm of REST – to quit all carnal struggling and overcome all forms of frustration and harassment. To be settled is to come to that solid place where God and more of Him has become the central focus of your life. Paul admonished “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph.4:14).

The settled person is no longer rootless and feeble like a reed blown to and fro by life’s vicissitudes. The settled soul does not bow to sin’s allurements or bend to the whims and caprices of tempters and deceivers. It is written of “settled” Moses: “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt…” (Heb.11:26a). Accessing the realm of Divine Settlement however demands that you be settled in your convictions, like Paul was: “…nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2Tim.1:12). The ‘Settled’ Believer is one who has “put his hand to the plow” and shall never again look or turn back into perdition (Lk.9:62). “The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battles” (Psa.78:9). They were evidently not settled in conviction or completion.

The refrain of the great hymn, My Hope is Built, beautifully describes what it means to be “settled”: “On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking stand!” God wants every believer to be firmly planted in a secure place in His Son and in His Word – the bedrock of our faith. Jesus Christ Himself is our foundation: “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1Cor.3:11). The house founded on the rock withstood the storm and flood! Our Lord declared: “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand” (Jh.10:28). The effectiveness of the Christian’s foundation is however based on continual obedience to God’s Word, which is the proof of true faith.