Secure 2!

Secure 2!

Psalm 91:2-3 KJV

[2] I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: My God; in him will I trust. [3] Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, And from the noisome pestilence.

As we saw in yesterday's devotion, your location will define your allocation. Where you are fixed will determine what you can get. Like all benefits systems work, you do not make a claim on specific benefits unless you are a citizen of the country offering the benefits. You cannot claim the rights of citizens unless you are one. That was the message of the verse just before the ones above, and is the foundation of the confidence and assurance that are laid bare in the verses above. When your internal state is secured, the external will align. When the internal is sorted, the external is also sorted. A man does not claim that God is His refuge and fortress until he has learned how to submit to God. Personal knowledge and experience are critical to the ability to claim God as refuge and fortress. How can a man who has never been saved from danger or trouble understand the value of a refuge or fortress? 

Before you can say, you have to first dwell. Before you can claim, you have to first be a citizen. Talk is cheap; anyone can make a claim on anything. What gives you what you claim is your ownership rights to that thing. There is no greater ownership right than that which salvation brings. Being saved means being owned and supported by God, the refuge and fortress. Now, God is a gracious God, and because we all are made in His image and likeness, He cares for all of us, but there is a special interest in those who have come to surrender their lives to His total control. I also note that personal terms used by the writer to refer to God: MY. That is an assurance of who you are, whose you are, and what you are entitled to, as well as absolute confidence in how your story ends. Just like the Lord's prayer which starts with 'Our Father', there is a personal touch that is critical to getting all that God is and has. 

I also note that the value of who God is will be appreciated whether there is trouble or not. In fact, at no time does God promise that we will have a life free of noise and trouble from God. In fact, He charges us to expect these things to happen to us, as a result of our stand with and in God. He did not keep Daniel from the den of lions; He did not keep Stephen from being stoned to death; He did not keep the three Hebrew boys from the fiery furnace; He did not keep Peter from being arrested, but in all these experiences, He was with these men every step of the way. God's presence does not mean that the story will end the way I want it to, but it will happen the way God wants it to, and it will bring glory and praise to His name. What else is the purpose of my life than to see God glorified? Let the winds roar and the storms rise; as long as God is with me, I will end well. That is enough for me; is that enough for you? Would you trust Him totally with your life, and see Him work wonders in and through you? God's time of favour is here.