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Millard Kinnison on November 28, 2024

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Together in Christ: 'God Alone Is My Refuge' — Psalm 91:1-2

Thursday, November 28, 2024

Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.

— Psalm 91:1-2 NLT

Key Thought...

"Where do I find my safe place, refuge, shelter, confidence, security, and rest?" This is a question each of us needs to ask ourselves! Drilling down on this crucial question, we can follow up with three more questions that are a bit more focused:

Where is my safe place in a world of change, decay, and natural disasters?

Where is my refuge in a time of division, war, and economic instability?

Where is my shelter from life's fickleness, my physical vulnerabilities, and nature's capricious disasters?

Deep in our hearts, we know we can't build a safe place in our houses to protect us from all these potential dangers. We don't have enough money or power to always protect ourselves. We are mortal. Life is fragile. We live in a connected world economy. War is a constant human reality, and violence is ever-present around us. We travel at high speeds and are vulnerable to accidents, always a possibility due to someone else, even when we carefully consider our own driving habits. So, what do we do, and where do we go to find safety, refuge, shelter, and rest?

Our psalmist points us to the Lord, [1] the Almighty, the Most High God. He is the God Who is the great I Am, [2] "who is, who always was, and who is still to come — the Almighty One." [3] He is the God Who created all that we know as matter and energy and life. [4] He is the One Who loves us so much that He sacrificed Himself by sending the Son as Immanuel, "God with us," to save us. [5] Through Jesus, God defeated sin, death, and hell for us, so we no longer have to be in fear of our mortality. [6] Satan cannot have us, nothing can separate us from the love God has for us in Jesus. [7] Even when our mortality claims our temporal physical bodies, we go to be with Jesus [8] and undergo our resurrection with a new, immortal, spiritual body that cannot die [9] in a place with God and His reward that cannot perish spoil or fade. [10] Even though we may have struggles, trials, persecution, and even martyrdom in this life, the far longest and richest eternal part of life makes these pale in comparison to the glory that will be ours. [11]

So, dear friend in Christ, let's draw near to God, trusting in the great I Am to be our safety, refuge, shelter, and rest. He is for us. He loves us. He knows us. He created us. He longs to spend eternity with us. He alone is our refuge and place of safety. And, when this world's worst winds blow through our lives, we know He is waiting for us and will not fail us. He is our God, the center of our lives, the ordering relationship from Whom all relationships take on their meaning and purpose. We trust Him!

[1] Lord, with small capitals, is the designation in many translations for YHWH (Yahweh, also said as Jehovah), the God who revealed Himself to Moses in Exodus 3. Also see Revelation 1:8, 4:8.

[2] Exodus 3:13-16.

[3] Revelation 1:8.

[4] Genesis 1:1-31; Psalm 8:1-9; Colossians 1:15-17; John 1:1-3.

[5] Matthew 1:21, 23; John 3:16-18.

[6] 1 Corinthians 15:54-58; 2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:14-18 .

[7] Romans 8:32-39.

[8] 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Philippians 1:18-26.

[9] 1 Corinthians 15:44, 50-55.

[10] 1 Peter 1:3-5; Matthew 6:19-21.

[11] Romans 8:18.

Today's Prayer

Thank You, God, for being Lord, the true and living God in Whom I can put my full trust. I praise You for revealing Yourself in Jesus, defeating death, and bringing mortals like me the assurance of life with You forever. I praise You and lift Your name above every other name to glorify the Father as Jesus fills me with the Spirit Who inspires me to thankfulness, hope, and joy. Because of Jesus, I pray with this confident praise. Amen.