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

"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 these potential dangers. We don't have enough money or power to protect ourselves from these. 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 even when we carefully consider our 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] to await our resurrection with a new, immortal 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 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!