What is God's Refuge

I've had some interesting conversations with people in that last week. As you know I've been reading Psalms. Which isn't the Lord great. He has perked my heart to read Psalms and that is exactly where I needed to be soaking up God's word. The best part is the 2 month before that I was going through a bible study with Gavin. Wouldn't you know it we read 1&2 Kings and after that we read 1&2 Samuel. Is the lords timing perfect! Could I have gotten a better perspective of David over that last 3 months. Just in the last couple days I've moved out of David's letters in Psalms so I've done some refection on David. David is quite the amazing character in the bible. God's chosen one, correct, who had to go through Hell to get to kingdom that God promised him. Then he lost his wallet half way through hell, he had to go back and get it in hell. You can never be to careful you have to protect yourself from identity thieves. Not even in the first centuries

OK back to the topic. What does it mean to be in God's refuge. The Psalms that David wrote were constantly about David asking God to be his refuge. David was feeling beat down and broken, I'm betting that he might have thought Samuel was some crazed mountain man speaking gibberish after Saul tried to kill him for the 800th time. What was the one thing that God was for David during this time (A REFUGE). This is the dictionary definition of refuge. Shelter and protection from danger or hardship. Or A source of help, relief, or comfort in times of trouble. So try and wrap you head around this. How do you sit in Gods Refuge when your life is falling apart like Davids was? How do you push yourself through to the next day when your wheels are still spinning in yesterday? How do you wait for God to do the perfect and impossible when David could have escaped by the skin of his teeth.? How do you sit willing in front of the tsunami wave that is about to crush on you? Shouldn't we avoid those crushing blows? David found this comfort during the struggles in his life. I finished off most of David's letters I remember a portion of John Pipers sermon about the Prosperity Gospel. Now I don't think David was combat the Prosperity Gospel, but he was combating the same issue that we deal with today. Finding true satisfaction in God, and being able to freely say "God is enough".

God is enough. What does that mean? God NEVER promised us that when our lives came into alignment with him, that our lives would get easier. Just ask David, Daniel, Moses, ............, or even Jesus. Jesus never said it either, he said to keep are heads up ane be ready because the water was going to rise up fast and strong against the followers of Christ. That we will experience trial after trial and suffering to the max as we seek to fall in line with God's will for our lives.

This is a direct quote from Piper "I'll tell you what makes Jesus look beautiful, it's when you smash you car and your little girl goes flying through the windshield and lands dead on the street and you say through the deepest possible pain. GOD IS ENOUGH, GOD IS ENOUGH HE IS GOOD, HE WILL TAKE CARE OF US, HE WILL SATISFY US, HE WILL GET US THROUGH THIS, HE IS OUR TREASURE. WHOM I HAVE IN HEAVEN? AND THERE IS NOTHING ON EARTH THAT I DESIRE BESIDES YOU. My flesh and my heart and my little girl may fail but you're the strength of my heart and MY PORTION FOREVER


THAT MAKES GOD LOOK GLORIOUS

WE can't reach that until we seek God to be our refuge. For you hurting heart, your brokenness, your sin, your loneliness, your struggles, and more. The christian church needs to be littered with suffering for Christ. Because God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him in the midst of LOSS. Talk about being different from the rest of the world. Talk about having a ministry. When you are hurting, where do you run? If you are honestly running to the arms of the lord seeking his refuge you will be able to say "God is enough." That is a tough pill to swallow and believe me I've put down some elephant sized pills.

What makes God's refuge so Good. We don't have to do a thing. Say you a hurting and wounded soldier on a spiritual battle field. And you ask God to pull you into his refuge. That is you green light to sit back and let God work. HE is going to do a better job than you anyways. That is you green light to relax and let God impact the world while you heal your hurts and hang-ups. You don't have to call anyone, you don't need to do anything. If you feel like you need to do something or help God out, your not resting in his refuge. God is saying "As your general, I will go out and fight for you on the frontlines and I will win, and lay everything perfectly out for my perfect will." WE don't have to do a thing. God will put the actions on people hearts that need to move. God will take our burdens and carry them to the foot of the cross. It's tough to be in God's refuge, because we are in this get it fast problem solver world, for me and most it's almost impossible to say "GOD IS ENOUGH". Let God solve the problem perfectly to his will and when we have given time to heal and rest. THEN we can come back and fight for him in ministry and in the new found wisdom that God spills into us as we wait in the loving arms of his "REFUGE". Maybe that is the refuge David was talking about not some hill in the dessert where he was hiding from Saul.

Could that be "REFUGE". The trick is can we get ourselves out of the driver seat and get into the ambulance bed in the back. Because we can't even be trusted to ride shot gun because we'll want to start giving God directions when he already knows where he's going.


Scott Ekstrom