Rest in Danger

What do you do when the world seems dangerous? Hide? Obsess about self-preservation? Pray your heart out? All of these things are instinctive, but God asks us to do something that is contrary to our instincts:

He calls us to rest.

How can we rest when disasters threaten? How can we live safely in an unsafe world? It all depends on where we choose to dwell. There is a kind of trust that is more preoccupied with the rock-solid character of our Sovereign God than with the circumstantial evidence of danger around us. When the psalmist tells us to dwell in the shelter of the Most High, the Spirit is directing us to look at the God who is certain rather than the world that is not. He calls us to count on His utter dependability rather than the ominous headlines of impending doom. And He urges us to hang on to the truths we believe rather than the lies we see. The ability to so absorb ourselves in the character of the Almighty qualifies us as God-dwellers—those who know the strength of the walls of His house. In other words, those who rest.

The restless soul looks at the troubled world and is troubled. It hears the newscasts and panics. It cannot rest secure because it does not know the source of security. It does not understand that whatever happens in this painful world, there is an eternal reality behind it. In that reality is a peaceful kingdom where sins cannot follow and tears cannot stain. The God who reigns there urges us to find our citizenship with His people. The restless soul can find rest.

So where do you dwell? The dreadful things that cross our minds will attempt to toss us around like a rowboat in a hurricane. God tells us to anchor ourselves in Him. That means place our hopes, our fears, our dreams, our sins, our faith, our weaknesses, our family all under His shelter. His shelter is our refuge, because there is nothing that can penetrate it—no disease, no terrorist, no war, no financial collapse, no broken relationship—nothing. The place of safety is available to us. Dwell there and rest.

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by Chris Tiegreen. Excerpted from The One Year Walk with God Devotional book [365 daily Bible readings to transform your mind].