Your cry for safety reaches the throne of God, but consider well the nature of the safety you seek. If you are conscious of no evil, you shall suffer nothing dreadful. Only the one who does evil shall suffer. So examine your life. The fear you feel can be a tutor, leading you to cling to the righteousness that possesses the goods of all men in safety. For it is not the rich, nor those who avoid all danger, who are secure, but those who work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.
Do not let your fear drive you to empty human reasonings, which are a vessel without a pilot, certain to sink. Instead, unfurl the sails of faith upon the divine Scriptures. That is the safe vessel, with the Word of God as your Pilot, that brings you to the tranquil haven. Your prayer must not be merely for the body's safety, for what hope is there if you neglect the soul? The extortioners and those who grasp at security through worldly means lose all, but the one in love with righteousness possesses the goods of all in true safety.
Seek safety not by hiding from every shadow, but by following the One who says, “Let him take up his cross, and follow Me.” Be ever prepared against dangers, against death, against your departure hence. This is the hard saying, but the prize is to be where He is. Moses did not fear the wrath of the king because he endured as seeing Him who is Invisible. Likewise, you must not look only at the visible threats, for that makes a man a coward. Look to the Invisible Lord, who is present with those who do not separate themselves from Him. He who sees the light of this world thinks himself safe; how much more the one who is with Christ?
Guard yourself also from corrupting friendships that only love your table, not your virtue. When you retrench worldly comforts, such friends vanish. But those who associate with you for virtue’s sake remain and strengthen you. Do not hand your peace over to the unscrupulousness of others, or to your own undisciplined desires, which, like water in the wrong parts of the body, bring disease, not health. Keep the desire of safety within the bounds of becoming thought, content with what you have, and freed from all fear. The cause of your fear is pressing, but your journey is not unto destruction, but to the place where Christ’s power is made perfect.
So, let your punishment, your fear itself, become a discipline that draws down God’s grace. Purge out the old leaven of malice and wickedness, and keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. In this is your ultimate safety. Commit all to God, present yourself again to each day’s duty, and trust not in the absence of storms, but in the Pilot who commands them. This is the anchor, sacred and sure, for the soul.