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But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. Psalm 5:11
Years ago now the news broke in my area of a young person who died tragically in a house fire. What made the death even more of a tragedy is that when he heard the smoke detectors in the middle of the night, he got scared and hid under his bed. When his parents frantically checked his room they didn’t see him and thought him to be outside. He was too scared to answer their calls.
By the time they realized he hadn’t made it outside it was too late. The young man perished from smoke inhalation. The fire was put out quickly. The rest of the family, while devastated at the loss of a loved one, was able to rebuild and go on with life. But the wound of that night haunted them for years. “He was so close to safety,” his dad remarked, “yet his fear was so much greater than his understanding of the situation it twisted his thinking with deadly consequences.”
When we are afraid, for whatever reason, we naturally look for a safe place to regroup. We seek a refuge that will protect us from further pain or harm, a place where we can feel safe and comforted. A place of refuge that will allow us to reach the full potential of our being.
The strength of our refuge determines the amount of peace, safety and healing we take with us on the journey. Some take refuge from emotional pain in new relationships. But relationships are fickle at best and can’t offer the lasting peace we crave. People who aren’t comfortable with the relationship they have with themselves find it difficult, if not impossible, to find true fulfillment in relationship with someone else.
Others seek refuge in addictive behaviors, anger, religious experience, careers, social action and a variety of other things bent on helping them suppress the fear and anxiety in their lives and replace it with comfort and a sense of well-being.
Those who learn how to take refuge in our Heavenly Father find peace in the midst of tragedy; encouragement in the face of disappointment; healing when anger raises its ugly head. Why? Because our human intellect tells us a refuge is protection from the outside, but the eternal, unshakeable refuge we have in God through Jesus Christ is an internal refuge that guards what external refuges can never protect, our souls.
Our bodies will fail us. Old age and/or death are 100% likely for each of us. Relationships will fail. Careers will end. Dreams will slip away in the night. But there is nothing in the seen or the unseen world that will ever break through the refuge of our souls that Jesus Christ offers us.
PRAYER: Father God, I thank you for the protection that you offer us through Jesus Christ. I thank you that we can find complete inner peace and safety when we take refuge in you. I confess I too often seek refuge from things that don’t last. Empower me to learn how to rest in the refuge you can give so in the midst of my adversity I can find rest. Amen.
But I, by your great love, can come into your house; in reverence I bow down toward your holy temple. Psalm 5:7
When I was young I delivered papers in my home town. Saturday was collection day so my parents would drop me off on the furthest end of my route and I’d wander door to door collecting from each of my customers.
I remember one Saturday in particular. I’d lost track of time and was still quite far from finishing my duties when the town siren went off. It was warm, cloudy and we’d had some pretty severe storms recently. I panicked. I was sure that the siren sounded to warn of an approaching tornado and I was completely at the mercy of the oncoming storm.
I hurried quickly to the next customer and knocked on the door. No one home. My anxiety shot through the roof! What would I do?
I went to the next door neighbor, even though they were not a customer. Trying to be as brave as I could, I asked the person answering the door if there was going to be a tornado. I felt a bit sheepish when I found out the siren I heard was the siren that blew (in those days) every day at noon!
I think of that story when I read Psalm 5:7. What a privilege we have that we can enter God’s house! We are invited in, not as guests, but as his child. We can partake in all of the safety, warmth, protection and comfort his home can provide. Better yet, this is no modest three bedroom bungalow. This is the home of a king, this is a palace.
The second statement David makes is even more revealing of the intimate access we have to our Father. We are allowed into his holy temple. When David wrote these words the temple we think of was yet to be built. The ‘temple’ he was referring to was the inner room of the tabernacle, the holiest of holy places where God himself dwelt.
What a marvelous reminder of God’s grace. We are not worthy to enter his home, but he welcomes us in as his child. Not only are we welcomed in as his child, we are given access to the most intimate parts of the home…the temple where God dwells.
When the storms of life threaten to attack. When you seem to be far from the safe confines of family or friends. When it seems the enemy is lurking at every corner. Remember that your Heavenly Father welcomes you as a child into the safety of his presence.
Today ‘home’ for some isn’t a pleasant place. If that’s the case with you, think of all the things home means to you in the best of circumstances. This is the home your Father in Heaven welcomes you into is a home of peace in the midst of the storm, warmth in the cold winter night, love in the midst of an angry world.
PRAYER: Father Thank you for the promise that I have a home with you. Thank you for the grace you offer me to welcome me as a child even though I don’t deserve it. When fear (real or imagined) attacks me, help me remember I have a safe place with you. Amen.
When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” Luke 7:13
A young man lies in a hospital bed fighting for his life as the result of a gunshot to the head. The community and surrounding area hold vigils for his healing. Prayer meetings are held in coffee shops, restaurants and churches. Television news trucks are parked outside the hospital waiting for word on the fight for life.
Inside, a young mom holds vigil over the bed of her husband and the father of her three young children. She cries. She tries to be strong, but can’t. She prays harder than she’s ever prayed before. Minutes stretch into hours and hours stretch into days. Well wishers look for any indication that there is improvement, and sign of hope, but there would be none.
Somewhere near by another mom suffers in silence. Her son was the one who fired the shot. She is the one sitting at a funeral of her little boy who died of a self-inflicted gunshot. Once a hero, now maligned as a vicious offender, this mom suffers in silence. Heartbroken over the death of her son, yet ashamed of his actions, she tries to block out the voices she hears. She avoids being in public because of the stares. Even the few, sincere condolences she receives do little to heal her own pain, not to mention the pain she feels for the other young mom in the hospital holding vigil.
The story in Luke has a much happier ending. This mom, unlike the other two would receive back her loved one. We really know little about her, or the life she lived. We know she was a widow. We know she’d just lost her only son. How old was he? Some versions of the bible say a man, some a boy. Most likely he was a teenager.
Jesus didn’t see the crowd of mourners. His attention wasn’t focused on the stretcher. Luke tells us that “Jesus saw her…” His attention was riveted on this mom who also had just lost her son, her only son. She was alone now. After her husband died, he’d become the man of the house. It was he who would be her assurance of provision into old age. Now he was gone and she was alone.
There is no grief so deep as the grief of a parent whose lost a child, and that wound is deeper for the one who carried the child in her own bosom, bore that child out of pain and nursed it at her breast.
Three moms, three different outcomes, but one Jesus. Only he can offer the comfort a parent needs when tears are shed over a child. Only he can heal the wounds with the oil of his love, because God knows what it’s like to lose a son. No one, regardless of how sincere, can know the pain of a mom (parent) who has lost a child except Jesus. He looks beyond the externals and sees the heart.
PRAYER: Father God. Today I pray for all those parents, especially mom’s, who have lost a child. I pray that they would be comforted through the comfort only your son Jesus Christ can offer. May your Holy Spirit walk with them through the healing they need during a most difficult time. Amen.
And after you suffer for a short time, God, who gives all grace, will make everything right. He will make you strong and support you and keep you from falling. He called you to share in his glory in Christ, a glory that will continue forever. 1 Peter 5:10 (NCV)
I was at a conference on church leadership a few months back. The keynote speaker had just recently published a new book. In his presentation he told us about some of the struggles that he’d had between his college years and the present.
Then, he and his wife were living in a one room apartment in which they shared the kitchen and bathroom with their landlord. The basement ‘apartment’ smelled bad, they continually battled mold and rodents. It was cold and damp in the winter and cold and damp in the summer.
Now, he’s speaking around the world to executives of some of the most profitable companies in the world. While I have no idea what his financial situation is now, I’m quite sure he’s better off now than in the apartment days. At the end of his presentation he directed the over 200 of us to his table where there were several piles of books. He told us how much the book was and then made a statement that went something like this, “There’s a basket there by the books for the cost of the book. There are order forms in case you’d rather order it later. But if you don’t have the money today, take the book. If you can pay me later, thank you. If you can’t, I remember the ‘apartment days’ and how hard it was to make ends meet. Take the book as a gift from me to you. God Bless!”
With those closing words he left the stage. He’d given a wealth of good information in his presentation, but to me at least, the most powerful words he spoke were at the end because those were the words of grace.
Too many times in our lives we ask ‘Why?’ We do good things with a sincere heart. We pray earnestly and humbly for God to change relationships, improve our business, or heal the disease in a loved one. When he doesn’t respond as we hope we get angry, bitter, and resentful. “What good does it do to serve him when he does this stuff to me?” we say either to others, or inside ourselves.
Think for a moment of the words in 1 Peter 5:10. The “God who gives ALL grace…” Not just some grace. Not limited grace. Not conditional grace. Conditional grace isn’t grace at all because grace by its very nature is unconditional. Peter, the man who denied Jesus knew better than most. God’s grace is given so we might endure. Grace is ours so we can be strengthened, encouraged, lifted up and one day, rewarded. For now, our trials make us stronger so that we may make others stronger in their journey.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus. Even though the trials I’m going through are difficult, I thank you for them because I trust you enough to know that these trials will make me stronger so I can strengthen my brother. Forgive me for my grumbling, my worry and my complaining for they are signs of a lack of trust. Empower me to live for you. Amen.
But God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 NCV
Christmas and Valentine’s Day seem to be the two holidays when stories of love seem to proliferate. Like the age-old story of a young woman who sells her long locks of hair so she can buy her husband a watch chain, only to find, as they open their gifts that he has sold his watch to buy her beautiful combs for her hair.
The story and others like it capture our attention because they show one of the main ways we can show others that we love them. In a word, the story speaks of sacrifice.
Giving up something of value to you for the sake of others is love.
Putting aside your own needs so someone else can have something they want, is love.
Doing what you know is right even when it hurts is love.
Looking at the needs (short and long term) of others instead of your own needs, is love.
Being willing to live in someone else’s world when it is so much different than yours is love.
Joseph showed this kind of love when Mary came to him and told him she was pregnant. He knew he hadn’t had sex with her. He loved her so much that, even though he’d be well within his rights to have her stoned, he chose to marry her. Rather than consummate the marriage in the usual time frame, he waited until the baby was born.
But the greatest love story continues to be the story of Almighty God. He chose to live among his creation in the midst of sin that he couldn’t tolerate. He chose to be born a pauper when he owned the cattle on a 1,000 hills. He chose to be born a helpless, powerless infant when, in reality he held the stars he created in place.
He didn’t come to love a people who would return his love. He knew many would reject him. He didn’t come to love a people who would stand in awe of his power and miracles. He knew they would always just ask for more and then walk away unbelieving. He didn’t come expecting people to love accept him. He knew they would not only reject him, but they would murder him as well! Such amazing love!
But the biggest proof of His love is this, he didn’t come to love me after I changed my ways. His love didn’t come based on my ability or even my desire to change. He came to love me while I’m still sinning. That’s true love.
True love says that no matter how much you hurt me; how much you rob me of my needs being met; how much you ignore my pleas for support and love, I’ll love you enough to die for you.
Jesus died for me knowing I’d fail him and others miserably. He died for you in the midst of your illness, rebellion, disbelief, anger or frustration. Others will fail you. Jesus never will. That’s how he showed you his love.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, during this season of love I’ve been reminded of how much you love me. Still, it’s hard to love others when they hurt me, reject me or fail to meet my needs. It’s so hard to keep giving and get nothing in return, but I guess you know that. Thank you for your unconditional love! Amen.
