Appendix 14. We, Inside a Glass Bottle

The place where Jesus shelters his people is transparent, like a glass bottle. The refuge Jesus has prepared, shaped like a glass bottle, never breaks. But if it has one drawback, it is this: whatever Satan uses to tempt us from outside can be seen from inside, too. Because the Lord is always a sure wall around us, all we need do is stay still, without doubting or wavering. It is Satan who tempts us without ceasing as we wait there. Because he makes his world look so beautiful and stirs up the desire to possess it, in the end we cannot overcome our greed, and we commit the folly of opening the lid and climbing out.

But did you know? The shelter of Jesus, that glass bottle, can never be opened from the outside. Unless we open it from within, Satan can threaten and tempt from outside, but he cannot get in. This is just what Jesus means when he says that you are in him. Yet he does not hold back those who open the lid from inside and walk out of their own accord. Those who cannot resist temptation and leave lose the Lord’s protection from that moment. Satan attacks and torments those who have stepped outside Jesus’ protection as much as he pleases, and lays them utterly waste. The world we live in is exactly that—a dangerous place under Satan’s attack. Jesus has made for us a refuge of faith that will never break, yet when, dazzled by everything visible in the world, we walk out of faith by our own choice, the suffering we endure under Satan is like the suffering of death. Even while we remain in faith, when we see the wealth, power, and honor of the world along with our own desire for them, we cannot help but lose heart and despair. But if we stay in faith while watching the world’s storms and its glittering festivals, the day will surely come when all of it is stilled. Staying inside the glass bottle takes endurance. Only by training ourselves in endurance every day can we bear the fruit of the Spirit inside that bottle, even when Satan threatens and lures us with the things of the world.

Friends! May you take heart, lean on the Lord alone, and find rest in the refuge he has granted you.