Refuge

When everything falls apart, where do you go running? We all take refuge in something when things go wrong.  In the Hebrew language, the main thought behind their word "refuge" is security.  Psalm 46:1 says that "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."  What is your refuge? Why should we take refuge in God?

1. We take refuge in our strengths
This is somewhat obvious as it makes perfect sense to fall back on our strengths when things go wrong.  We find security in our careers, education, bank accounts, family, and significant others.  But this is not good because careers are uncertain, economies crash, and people can disappoint.

2. We take refuge in our comfort zones
We take refuge in our comfort zones because they are...comfortable.  Our comfort zones are a place of zero risk, zero pain, and ultimately zero growth.  Staying inside your comfort zone is not good because it hinders you from creating and growing. But we tend to take refuge inside of our comfort zones because we don't want to face the risk of failure or rejection.  We don't want to risk upsetting a close friend, so we don't have that difficult conversation.  We find security in our comfort zones to our own detriment.

3.  We must take refuge in our God
The challenge to this is that God is invisible, inaudible, and intangible.  We cannot pray to God and expect to hear sirens and a God squad car coming to rescue us in the middle of the night.  But God is there, whether we have the faith to believe it or not.  The fact is, God gives us the faith to have faith in Him.  

God is our impenetrable fortress who goes with us (vv. 7,11), so we don't have to live in fear (v. 2).  Nothing can go below, around, or above God's protection.  All that God requires of us is to be still and know that God is who He says He is (v. 10). Therefore it is crucial that we instill the idea of stillness into the way in which we live our lives. Take time out of your busy lives to be still before God, for the most secure you will ever be is when you are still before our Almighty God.