Skip to main content

Refuge

             The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. (Psalm 9:9)

Refuge: a condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble. It comes from Latin terms meaning back and to flee.

I’ve provided the definition of refuge above but what does a refuge look like to you? On the 25th, I wrote about home. I suspect that the home we want is a refuge, a safe shelter, not only from actual danger or trouble, but from every discomfort. What would make it so? This isn’t what the verse is about – it’s just a rabbit trail.

As I considered and prayed about the idea of refuges, one of the issues is the source of the oppression and trouble. Ultimately, it’s Satan. Penultimately, it’s the world, the flesh, and the devil. At least part of the time, the source is either “People!” or “Life!” or “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”  No matter who the oppressor or troubler is there are two levels involved: physical and nonphysical. The non-physical is the more insidious because it can take place without our even realizing that we’ve been attacked. It’s also far more common than we want to imagine.

And the refuge we need from the non-physical attacks isn’t one with pleasant colors and comfortable chairs. It’s one where the truth is proclaimed and lived. I grew up in a home where the eleventh commandment was “Thou shalt not put holes in walls!” I’m not fond of putting bumper stickers on cars or the equivalent on my walls, but there are other ways of combatting the psychological and spiritual abuse that touches our lives. Reading, studying, and memorizing Scripture are all helpful. That’s where to start, but sometimes, we don’t even realize we’re contributing to our own oppression. We need to be ruthless with ourselves, kicking the lies we tell ourselves out and insisting on the truth proclaimed in Scripture no matter how much we’re tempted to believe the lies. We need to ask ourselves regularly if ours is behavior appropriate to a child of God. If it’s not, we need to run to the refuge – to Scripture, and proclaim its truth over ourselves because that’s what will produce the safe refuge.

It's a challenge to shift our beliefs from what we’ve been taught to what God says. But that’s the most important level of refuge we can have.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more