According to Google, a refuge is a condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble. Something providing shelter.
When I think of refuge I think of being protected, sheltered, safe. I think of my husband as my refuge. I think of our house as a refuge from storms or criminals. I think of God as my ultimate refuge...my protector from anything harmful in life. Psalm 46:1 says He is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in time of trouble ...
I haven't always felt He's a safe place, or even very protecting. After my divorce I felt abandoned by not only by my husband, but by God as well. I had done everything I knew to do to fight for my marriage, but it didn't last. I prayed, fasted, sought wise counsel, submitted, obeyed, went to church...EVERYTHING! But what I did wasn't enough to keep my husband from leaving our marriage.
I became very angry at God and turned to things not of Him. I screamed at God. I cussed at Him. I was bitter and ugly, resentful and rebellious. I was broken. After a few years of throwing my pity party, I became sick and tired of being sick and tired. I once had a friend say to me that's what it would take, and boy was she right. Once I hit rock bottom I decided it was time to get back on my knees and into His Word. I couldn't go to church yet. I felt exhausted just thinking about it. So I only read, journaled, and prayed. In doing that, I found God to be safe. I found Him to be good and loving, patient and kind.
What I also found out was that He wasn't Santa God. He's omnipotent, but He will not take away my free will. He would not take away my ex husband's free will either. The choice my then husband made did not reflect how God saw me. My ex husband made a choice and no one had control over that choice but him. God wasn't going to make him love me or stay with me. No one is God's robot. God wants us to choose Him freely, and the ways of Him freely...not forced by His hand. After learning this (and I'm still learning this), my anger and resentment, bitterness and rebellion slowly became things I wanted OUT of my life and heart. Forgiveness, kindness, patience...and all of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 became what I longed for and where I wanted my heart to live.
I am reading the Psalms presently, and I am still being reminded of how safe He is. Psalm 12: 5-7 says "Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise, says the LORD. I will protect them from those who malign them. And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times. O LORD, you will keep us safe and protect us from such people forever."
What a precious refuge we have in God. When we forget this, it is our own sin, and our lack of faith in His goodness. No person or thing can protect us like He can. My prayer is that we see Him as He truly is, and that we can grasp what Ephesians 3: 16-19 says... " I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
He is so very good and so very worthy of being called our Refuge!
Blessings sweet friends,
I love you... Scarlett
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