Is a refuge only for times of trouble? or do we need to change our mindset of the purpose of a refuge?
God is our refuge. I have found that he wants me to make him my refuge when times are bad and when times are good. He is my safe place. He is my place to recharge. He is my resting place. He is my hiding place. He is the place I can go to when my heart is bruised and my soul is weary and my mind is overloaded.
He is also the place I go to when life is good and I want to rejoice in the birdsong of early morning or celebrate the exquisite smell of lilacs. The Lord doesn’t merely long to be the place we run when life has beaten us down, but He wants to be the one we reach for when life has presented us with sunshine.
I came across Psalm 31 the other day and I found so many references to the Lord being our refuge. Did you know that when we make Him our refuge we will not be put to shame? Shame is such an insidious problem. Shame forces us into hiding, but the wrong kind of hiding. We withdraw from the Lord and from people who long to walk through life with us. We find freedom when we make the Lord our refuge. He is strong and mighty to save and is able to rescue us from ourselves. He also wants to pour out His goodness on us–how I long for His goodness– His goodness is poured out when I take refuge in Him!
But there have been times in my life where I think I am making Him my refuge, but I still feel as though I need to tackle all my life problems myself. I believe I found the litmus test of whether I am truly making the Lord my refuge and that is found in Psalm 62:8 ‘Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge’. Two things light up for me in this scripture:
1. Am I trusting Him?
2. Am I pouring out my heart to Him?
Am I letting the Lord into the secret places of my heart, the secret thoughts? Am I speaking all that is within my heart or filtering what I say to Him?
I get scared.
of people.
a lot.
I allow people to wield too much power over me. Trusting God and pouring out my heart to Him are two things that I can do to break that unhealthy power I give to people because when I trust God and pour out my heart to Him, His opinion becomes more important and more powerful in my life.
And you? What are your struggles? When do you most often want to hide and where do you go? Have you thought of the Lord as your refuge and have you pondered all that He wants to do for you there?
Welcome His grace into your life by running to Him when you long for a refuge.
Grace. It’s one of those concepts that my brain starts to slowly get a grasp on and then ‘poof!’ it vanishes and I am left scrambling around in the dusty closets of my brain searching for that elusive understanding of grace. I am notorious for putting papers or items someplace ‘safe’ and usually they are truly safe because I forget where I put them. That’s really why I subscribe to the stacking method of organization–stacks you can move around, but don’t really have to put away. Hence, the important things are somewhere, oh, about 2/3’s down that one stack over there. I know where things are in stacks. I wish grace were like that. I wish grace was something I put in a stack and know exactly where it is.
I am beginning to realize that grace isn’t merely an intellectual concept to wrestle, nor is it something I bring out when I need it, but it must be lived to understand. Each day I welcome grace into my world, I learn a little more about grace. Each time I extend grace to someone else, I learn a little more what it looks like, but if I am truly trying to live an authentic life then somehow I must learn to welcome grace into my own life. I must learn to extend grace to me, not merely to other people.
I find it easier to extend grace to other people–at least outwardly–my heart is another matter. I find it difficult to extend grace to myself. I find recriminations more natural. But I am called, and you are called to live super-naturally. In the strength of God-in the grace of God. I want to explore what this looks like–join me?
I sit in the light of the full moon and night is as day. It is as though the moon is a lamp that has been turned on to dispel the darkness of a room. It’s a monthly lighting that takes my breath away by it’s beauty. When the moon reaches it’s fullness the things that I know are there in my yard…the maple trees and blue spruces and even the hog barns…are illuminated gently, yet definitively so. When the time comes for the ‘new moon’ and the night is at it’s darkest night, the truth remains that the trees and the buildings are still there. I know this even though I cannot see it.
I have found grace to be like that as well. Sometimes I see things clearly lit by grace and other times I have to believe the truth of what is true. It is in those full grace times when I seethe truth that I am loved unconditionally, that my security is found in the truth of who God is, and that I can be fearless and courageous. However, it is in the times when my world is dark and grace cannot seem to cast its light into the dark corners that I have to believe the truth that I am loved unconditionally, that through Christ I am fearless and courageous, and that I rest secure in God because He says I can. They say that seeing is believing, but I think believing is seeing. If we want to see, we must believe.
We must believe first and ask God to open our eyes to see.
Everyday.
In every way.
I want to see the grace that He freely gives.
Sometimes that’s hard because His grace points me in directions that bring me suffering because I am needing to give up some pet sin that I continue to feed and take care of or a habit or way of thinking about myself that He wants to bring under His sanctifying healing touch. It’s then that I long for the gentle illumination of grace and when I get outside of myself–away from my external and internal distractions and simply look to Him, I see clearly.
Who am I? That is the age old question any of us ask–who are we, exactly? The easy answer is that I am a late-thirties something woman, wife of 18 years, mother of four children, worship leader, homeschooling mother, and friend. The hard answer is that I am still becoming. It is a journey that unfolds day by day, circumstance by circumstance, strength to strength, weakness to weakness. This little place will be a documentation of that journey to becoming. I believe life lived is to be shared. Life is not a solo experience. I want to share the journey and in some small way encourage fearlessness and courage in living life. I am learning to welcome grace into my life. I want to share that grace with you.
You. Who are you? You could be a mother, a wife, a single woman, a friend, a pastor. You could be motherless. You could be a grandmother. You could be a doctor or a checker at the local big box store. That’s the easy answer. The hard answer is that you are becoming as well. The beautiful answer is that when we welcome grace, when we open our arms to grace we ‘become’ bit by slow bit.
In this place, we will explore grace and brokenness and freedom. In order to get there we will examine the things that prevent us from welcoming grace, embracing brokenness and celebrating freedom. At the end of the year I hope we have accomplished opening our arms a little wider to grace.
