Refuge

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)

Do you ever feel like you need a refuge? A place to go to escape the world and the terrible things in it? This has been one of the heavy weeks I can remember in terms of tragic news. This world is full of darkness, and it is moving further and further away from the God who created it. We desperately need a refuge, a safe place to turn to in this chaotic world.

A refuge can be a shelter, a sanctuary, a haven, a retreat, a stronghold, and a safe house. In God, we find all of these. A safe place from the elements, a safe place from persecution and danger, a place of comfort and safety, a place for peace and seclusion, a place of protection and a place of secret safety from dangers. Are there times, however, where God doesn’t feel this way? Isaiah might have some insight as to why, at times, it feels like we don’t have a refuge to which we can escape.

“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)

If you are living with sin, if you are constantly pursuing it and keeping it secret, then you are separating yourself from God, from your refuge. Thats’s like having a little safe room or fallout shelter and occasionally going into it with an axe to put some cuts into the walls. Sin weakens your connection and relationship with God and if we are living with sin then we are hurting our safe place, our refuge in the Lord.

Let go of your sin, confess it, see it for the death-sentence it is, and let it go. Choose God completely not halfway. Keep the walls of His refuge intact so you have a safe place to go when the world closes in.