Scripture

Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.

~Psalm 31:5, NIV

Quote

In surrendering our claim to what we had thought was “our life,” we discover the true nature of the life of Christ who is our Refuge.

~Gerald H. Wilson [NIV Commentary]

We take refuge in many things: buildings, large rocks, walls, etc. These things are always bigger than we are since it is impossible to hide behind something that is smaller. My little office building is a refuge, a hiding place that gives me temporary asylum from the world. Of course my ultimate salvation is not in my building. It takes something much greater to save us from our sins and enemies: Satan, pride, lust, greed, anger, malice and on and on. I think when David wrote Psalm 31 he was under assault, not from arrows or spears but from lies. His enemies were slandering him with lies. David’s reputation was being destroyed and his character assassinated. The same thing you see the left doing to Trump. It is the same old, same old; nothing has changed. Naturally David wanted his malicious enemies to feel the same shame and humiliation they had caused him.

This brings us to a problem. Yahweh, as a general rule does not believe in a quick fix, which is of course what we desire. He has His reasons; one is to teach us and another is to bring us to complete dependence on Him. Yet in the meantime, He is our refuge. He is our hiding place. The world condems us but He doesn’t. The world doesn’t care how we feel, He does! What is the key that gets us into His refuge? It is surrender. Jesus prayed the verse above on the cross because He was fully surrendered. The world was abusing Him and He was tired, weary and worn out. He surrendered His Spirit [life] to the Father and entered His refuge.

He was simply showing us the way in. Are you worried about what others think of you? Do you have your ears tuned to their criticism? Are you anxious about your reputation? This is not life, not real life: there is a better way. Surrender your life {will} to Christ and enter in. Take refuge in HIM. You are not going to get any encouragment or applause from the world for trusting Jesus, but once you surrender and enter in, you will not care what they think. You will be preoccupied by something bigger, infinitely bigger and that is Jesus Himself.

Extra

Smoking chickens for Seniors a DBC so I was up early getting the chicks in the smoker. Going back and forth from the smoke house to the office got me confounded: finally, I called June and ask her if I had done the blog and she said no. Then I looked and saw it for myself so sorry about being late.

I hope you have a great Friday and a great weekend. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Trust me, you need HIM more than He needs you.