Dear Word of Life Chapel,
Happy new year! Can you believe it has arrived already? I hope yesterday’s service kickstarted you to a good beginning and a safe beginning to your new year.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, through the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea…” (Psalm 46)
The result of having an omnipotent refuge is that we are safe and we have nothing to fear. However, I know that we all face fearful feelings over the dangerous conditions that surround us, and we may not feel safe; we feel afraid. The reason for this is because we’re battling with faith in our heart. Do we really believe that God is a sufficient, all-powerful refuge for us in times of trouble? If we believe that, then we will feel safe and at peace with no fear in our lives.
In Matthew 14:22-33, we read about a very familiar story of Peter walking on water. This story begins with the disciples in a boat on the sea of Galilee without Jesus. It was a windy night, so the water was choppy and stormy. The disciples become afraid when they see Jesus walking on the water. Jesus responds by saying, “take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” (v27)
Peter asks Jesus for a confirming sign that prioves that it is indeed Him by asking Jesus to empower him to walk on the water too. Therefore, Jesus says, “come” and Peter steps out of the boat and walks towards Jesus on top of the waves. Peter is successful until v30 when he starts looking at the wind, and he becomes afraid. He cries out to Jesus, “Lord, save me” and in v31, Jesus immediately reaches out to Peter and pulls him up to Him. Then Jesus says, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (v32).
It’s a remarkable story because it describes us. While Peter was one arm length away from Jesus, he began to look at his stormy frightful circumstances and shift his eyes off of Jesus, and that’s when he sank. How often do we do the same? God is our Refuge. He could not be closer. He is a “very present help in trouble.” And God is our Warrior Who dominates our foes (Psalm 46:7,11). And He could not be closer. Yet the scary situation draws our attention away from where we truly are…in a safe Refuge called God and by a mighty Warrior named God. We turn our eyes instead to the tempestuous situation that scares us, and the result of our wavering faith is that we become afraid.
And as Jesus says to Peter, “O you of little faith, why do you doubt?” (v32) This is truly the battle we face when we are afraid of even the most legitimate dangers in our life, like eminent death: we don’t believe that we have and that we’re in “God, our Refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” If we believed this reality, then we would, like Peter, be able to walk on top of the storm and not let it make us drown, so to speak.
I think Peter also represents our wavering faith demonstrated through his topsy-turvy confidence in the Lord. In other words, Peter successfully trusted in Christ’s power over the storm until he didn’t! Peter was not a complete failure in his faith. He did walk on the water for most of his journey because he was fixing his eyes on Jesus in the midst of storm. And then, suddenly, he takes his eyes off the Lord. That easily describes us too. We believe that God makes us safe. We believe that God is our refuge against death and we’re focused on Him. We have that peace in the midst of our trial, but then we relapse, forget, or get distracted by the noise of “a mountain being moved into the heart of the sea” which then causes us to take our eyes off of the Lord.
God help us all to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus amidst a scary world.
There is one final thing I want to share about how Psalm 46 plays out in our life. Even though God is our refuge and strength, it doesn’t mean He doesn’t let terrible things happen to Christians in this life. We know that Christians suffer, die, and even get martyred for their faith in God. Is God a refuge and strength in those situations?
Let me quote John and Paul to answer that question:
Jonathon Edwards said, “God does not keep us from all evil things, but He keeps us from the evil of those things.”
Even better, Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:16-18 – “16 At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Paul could be paraphrasing Psalm 46. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble…” God strengthened Paul in some of the loneliest moments. When all deserted Paul, God did not. So God strengthened him. So we can see that God is even a faithful refuge in times of trouble, social trouble & lonely trouble.
And notice Paul’s final words (they are literally some of his final words in life!), “God will bring me safely into His heavenly Kingdom.” Paul would be executed shortly after writing 2 Timothy. And yet Paul knew that God would be His refuge, in life and in death. In death, God would be Paul’s refuge against the true force of death. God would bring Him safely home to heaven.
He will do the same for you too.
May God give us strength together to continue believing in God’s Mighty Refuge that He is to us against our greatest troubles!
With love in Christ,
Aaron
