God is Our Refuge

DAILY BIBLE READING:

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3:22

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

Psalm 46:1-11

Proverbs 22:15

TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE(S):

Psalm 46:1 (NLT) "God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble."

REFLECTIONS ON TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE(S):

If the Pauline epistles of the New Testament are directed at the mind of the God-follower, then the book of Psalms is directed at the heart of the God-follower.

The Pauline epistles deal with what is objectively true. The Psalms deal with what is subjectively felt.

This is one of the blessings of reading the book of Psalms. It's rugged. It's real. It asks the same questions and struggles with the same issues that we often do with our own life. 

Further, it is comforting to know that while the psalmists periodically questioned God and sometimes expressed their exasperation at what he was or was not doing, we are also told that one of the writers was "a man after God's own heart" (Acts 13:22).

So, when we read passages like our Verse for Today, we realize that it's not simply theory. It's not untested truth. It is something that the writer has experienced. He knows it to be true and the words are coming from his heart.

He had been in times of trouble and God had been a "refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

What about you, friend? Have you experienced God's love and provision when life got tough? He is the same God that He was when the Psalmist pinned this verse (Hebrew 13:8).

Maybe you need to spend more time in prayer "casting your cares upon him for he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). Maybe you need to ask the Lord to increase your faith and open your eyes so that you can see what He is doing even as He allows the trials to continue.

But even if you cannot make sense of it, God has not changed. He is your refuge and strength! And He loves you so much that He would rather die (on the cross) than spend eternity without you. So rest in Him today.