Editor’s Note: In these days of restrictions due to the pandemic and a very real concern about a world at war, it seems appropriate to reprint this devotion, first published in 2015. Find your hiding place in Jesus and be encouraged.
"For You are my hiding place; You protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory." Psalm 32:7 (NLT)
"You are my refuge and my shield; Your word is my source of hope." Psalm 119:114
This last month hasn't been the easiest month I've ever lived. It was filled with tests in major areas...health, relationships, and finances. Each area became vulnerable to the wiles of the enemy.
In the midst of the struggle God began to speak. First came a scripture. I was reading Jeremiah 36. Jeremiah had sent the scribe, Baruch. to Judah's leaders with a prophecy against them for their sinful ways. Not liking the warning of punishment, the king gave the order to have the prophet and scribe arrested. Jeremiah 36:26 records, "but the LORD hid them." Next God simply placed the words "hiding place" on my heart. Then a friend spoke the same words followed soon after by a hymn of worship in church, a mention in a sermon and, lastly, a devotion I read on Facebook.
I've kept Psalm 32:7 and 119:114 before me every day. I even ended my devotions every morning by reading the 143rd Psalm. The heaviness of the struggle remained. Psalm 143:4 resonated in the place where my feelings tore at me..."I am losing all hope, I am paralyzed with fear." Well, maybe I wasn't paralyzed, but I had certainly reached a point of inaction. Fear of the "what ifs" had taken over.
Then 143:5 popped out from the rest of the Psalm. "I remember the days of old. I ponder all Your great works and think about what You have done."
I remember...I ponder...I think. Action words. The key isn't to be aware but "to do." Sometimes we are so overwhelmed by circumstances that we can't make it through unless God carries us and does something (...show me a token for good...Psalm 86:17). But, at some point He has strengthened us and wants us to take action. Active faith...standing firm...choosing to remember (and trust in) who God is, what He has done, what He will yet do.
I looked back and saw in every rough time of my life God had always brought me through; He has never left me; He has never forsaken me. Why should today be any different?
So...I confessed my fear of the "what ifs" and surrendered to the "whatever."
Whatever is Your will, Father, please do it!
I climbed into the cleft in the rock provided by Jesus, my hiding place, and found peace; peace that gave me the strength to move on.
"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
"If you make the LORD your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. For He will order His angels to protect you wherever you go." Psalm 91:9-11
by Marilyn Allison