OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL - THURSDAY - 13/03/2014 - GOD, MY REFUGE BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE

GOD, MY REFUGE

MEMORISE

I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

Psalm 91:2

READ

Psalm 71:1-3

1 In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.

2 Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.

3 Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.

MESSAGE

The Almighty God, who is also the Most High, is our refuge, if only we belong to Him. A refuge is a place where you hide especially when trouble comes. For me, this place is in the presence of God Almighty. I can hide underneath the Name of Jesus and say nobody can touch or harm me. Hiding does not always indicate cowardice. Brave men also hide. As a matter of fact, an adage in my native language says in part that ‘you know a man of valour by his ability to fight and hide’. There are several occasions in the Bible where strong men of God were told by God to go and hide. 1 Kings 17:1-3 shows such an instance. Here we meet a mighty man of God who came before a king and pronounced that there would be no rain until he commanded it. Immediately after his statement, God told him to go and hide. Is this not strange? Was God afraid of the king? No! There are moments when we have to learn to hide. When God says you should go and hide, what it implies is that the battle is no more your own but His own. When God starts the fight, you have to leave the scene. I have learnt to hide when God says I should hide. If God asks me to hide so that He can fight for me, I will gladly hide.

In Psalm 71:1-3, the Psalmist declared his total trust in the Lord and earnestly prayed to the One who has never lost a battle. He told the Lord that if God would not keep him, he was finished, because he had no surer alternative. One of my sons told the story of how he threw away all the charms he took from his father’s house after his conversion. According to him, he blew the bridge between his magic world and the new world in Christ he had come into. It became difficult for him to think of going back because he had destroyed the charms which took his father decades to gather in the occult world. Let’s pay close attention to Psalm 71:2 which says:

“Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.”

The Psalmist points out something fundamental to divine security here. It is only the righteousness of God that can keep and cause us to escape the onslaught of the wicked world. It is also the life of holiness that will make God to incline His ear to our cry when we call on Him in the time of trouble. The promise of God in Psalm 91:15 is for those who love Him, know His name and keep his commandments (Psalm 91:14). I pray for you that the Almighty God will be your refuge as from today in Jesus’ Name.

ACTION POINT

Put your trust in the Lord and shun any other alternatives the world may offer, and you will live in peace and safety.