The Rock of My Refuge

 

 

“But Yahweh has been my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.” Psalm 94:22.

 

I am so thankful that the Word of God, the Bible, awaits me every morning. I am so deeply thankful that God speaks to me every morning and every day through the pages of Scripture by the Holy Spirit and in our Lord Jesus Christ. I am also thankful that every morning I know what I am going to read in the Bible as my daily foundation; I may read other passages for sure, I may build on my daily foundation, but I always know where I am to go for my foundational reading and that reading is anchored in the Psalms.

 

As I have written before, while “devotionals” such as Our Daily Bread have their place, there is no substitute for reading the Bible as it is written, that is, there is no substitute for reading the Bible in its context, reading the Bible book by book. For example, right now my daily reading beyond the Psalms includes Jeremiah, Thessalonians, Revelation, and John.

 

As I have also written, I am talking about reading the Bible without any commentary notes – whether those are in a study guide or a commentary or a study Bible – those can all have their place, but I am speaking of spending time with the Trinity, pondering and meditating and listening and communing and speaking with God – as we would with a friend - for He is our Abba, our Father, our Elder Brother.

 

My flight plan is on file before I wake up every morning and it begins with Psalms; I know where I am heading after takeoff (this morning it is Psalm 71 and Psalm 101). I don’t have to think, “Now what am I going to read this morning?” Nor do I need think about whether I am going to watch or read or listen to the news or check my email – my flight plan is about my life in Christ, not about the fast food of the world, food without nutrition.  I am called to worship God and be a blessing to others – that is the way I want to live and that is the way I want to die.

 

I am writing about this because of our temptation and propensity to be distracted by the world and its headlines and to have our equilibrium upset. I am writing because we can buy into the lie that it is more important for us to be “informed” about the world than it is to worship God and share His life with others. I am writing because, sadly, there are those professing Christians who live by headlines and teach via headlines and pull us away from our Lord Jesus using headlines, as they appeal to our curiosity and speculative nature – our desire to know future events rather than know the Person of Christ.

 

Also, our fears and anxieties can drive us into the world and away from devotion to Christ – and fear and anxiety feed upon one another, fear breeds fear breeds fear – and while it makes no logical sense, we keep consuming that which destroys us.

 

If we truly wanted to be informed then we would realize that terrible tragedy and suffering permeate the world every day, not just those days there is a crisis in the Middle East. If we really wanted to be informed then we would realize that children, the elderly, and other innocents are dying and being killed every day in conflicts and genocides outside of the Middle East. Perhaps we don’t really want to be informed, perhaps simply entertained with news from the Middle East – for it does seem to be more intriguing to many of us.

 

And after all, professing teaches of prophecy aren’t going to sell themselves or gather followers by asking us to think about suffering and wars in places that are not mentioned in the Bible.

 

I recently heard that Americans spend more on Halloween costumes for their pets than they do on reaching people with the Gospel who still don’t have the Bible in their native language. As for the professing church, where do we spend our money? On reaching others with the Gospel, on feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless and serving the sick – or on ourselves…whether “ourselves” means us as individuals or as local congregations?

 

How is that children are going without nutritious food just miles from local congregations who have more than enough to eat? Do we really want to be informed?

 

How is that we send our children to be educated in places – whether in lower or higher education – which attack the image of God? Can it really be true that as long as the basketball and football teams win that we don’t care what our children and teenagers and college students are taught? Do we really want to be informed?

 

Perhaps at the end of the day we only want to be informed if it affects our bank balances and retirement and investment accounts?

 

Having a flight plan helps me to focus on Christ and others, it does not mean that I am not tempted to be self-focused and entertained by headlines, but it does better equip me in Christ to resist these temptations through the Word of God. When I do wander off course, I know how to regain my navigational bearings because I have a flight plan, I’ve learned to fly by God’s instrumentation (the Bible) and not by sight. Isn’t the Word of God how Jesus responded to temptation in the Wilderness (Matthew 4)?

 

We’ll continue, the Lord willing, with Psalm 94:22 in the next reflection.