God with us - Week 37: Psalm 91:1-2
My time in the Brownies was short-lived!
After only achieving my Music Badge, it became apparent that I wasn’t the outdoor type. As a result, I never graduated to Guides and seemed to miss the boat on the whole Duke of Edinburgh thing. I was too busy in choir and brass rehearsals to learn how to use flint to start a fire (I don’t even know if that’s a thing)! My musical skills are great, but I don’t think I’ll be getting a call from Bear Grylls anytime soon. If we were lost in the middle of a storm, deep in the woods, then you would have to come up with the best way for us to find food, water, and shelter. I wouldn’t know where to start.
Shelter building is not my thing…not in the woods anyway!
When it comes to the storms of life, then my shelter-building skills are a lot more sophisticated, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this.
We build shelters to protect ourselves from those who have hurt us or have the potential to hurt us.
We build shelters to protect ourselves from ill health, financial insecurity, or the uncertainty of life in general.
We build shelters to protect ourselves from the big wide world out there, but they usually involve us withdrawing from others and hiding away in safety.
Over the past eighteen months, I noticed that the pandemic restrictions helped with my shelter building endeavours. I legitimately disengaged from situations and circumstances that I found challenging and hid away in safety with my family. It’s only as I’ve come back into the big wide world that the weak points of my carefully constructed shelter system have been exposed.
Can you relate to any of this?
In what ways have you created a shelter to protect yourself from the challenges of life?
1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 This I declare about the Lord:
He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
he is my God, and I trust him.
Psalm 91:1-2 (NLT)
Those who build their own shelter will hide in the shadows, aware of the fragility of their safety, their trust placed in their own strength. When we build our own shelter, it’s almost impossible to move forward in faith, as dismantling what we have built is scary.
When we abide under the shelter of the Most High, His love and protection follow us wherever we go. We don’t need to hunker down or hide away. Instead, we can know his protection in every circumstance we face. So, as you move back into the world over the coming months, remember that you are covered in shadow of God’s protection.
You don’t need to build your own shelter as God is with you always.
He is your place of shelter.
He is your place of refuge.
He is your place of safety.
He is the one you can trust.
Kay Moorby
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