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| Psalm
46.1 (NIV) God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. |
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| God doesn’t make us stronger – he is our strength.* |
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Have
you ever called a 24-hour Help Desk – and no one answered? Maybe you got a
recording that told you that your call was important to them but all their
technicians were busy assisting other customers. They were no help to you.
We
face trouble of some sort nearly every day but in most instances we barely tap
into the vast reserves of strength available to us. The Hebrew word for refuge
used in this verse refers to a military fortress or a place of protection from
extreme weather, and that the ever-present help is a “superlative help” – the most help. Unlike the people on the Help
Desk, God’s presence is always near when we are in trouble – and since trouble
never goes away, God never goes away.
The
next verses in this chapter say that we will not fear even though the earth
gives way; the mountains fall into the sea; the ocean roars and foams; and the
mountains quake with the surging of the waters.
Doesn’t that sound like trouble to you? Ask the people of Japan who, at
the time I wrote this, were struggling to recover from the devastating
earthquakes. I saw a video of a village being swallowed by a tsunami and it
looked exactly like the word picture in these verses. But God was there with my
friends who were missionaries in Japan; he was a superlative help to them as they
ministered to a nation who desperately needed a refuge.
What
is your “trouble?” Isn’t God big enough to shelter you and protect you? Has he
ever failed to be present in the midst of your trouble? “The Lord Almighty is
with us.” (Psalm 46.7)
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| No bomb can destroy the fortress of a soul at rest in God.* |
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