Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. (Psalm 62:8)
God is a safe place for his people. He can be trusted at all times, regardless of the circumstances in our life. I heard a pastor once say that the safest place we can be is at the center of God’s will. If the center of God’s will includes us becoming a missionary in a country hostile to the gospel, then that becomes the safest place for us to be. Not that we are guaranteed to avoid suffering, see Paul’s life, the lives of Jesus’ disciples, the early Christians who were persecuted and many martyred, and Jesus himself! Avoiding pain, suffering, and danger are not the goal of the Christian. In fact, doing so may place us in the most compromised position of all, not in alignment with the will of the father. And we know what Jesus said about that in the sermon on the mount (for a reminder read here). Regardless of where he has us be his missionaries (yes, if you are saved you were saved to his body to disciple others to him – you are a missionary), the town you grew up in, a city miles away, oversees to an unreached people group, we can know that any suffering we endure was ordained by God and has eternal significance and value. That God is our refuge.
I dare you to try living like this! It is one of the things that has changed my life more than anything in my Christian walk. The freedom that comes as we trust God is amazing! God didn’t ask me to move oversees to a nation hostile to the gospel (at least not at this point), but he did ask me to move with my husband to a city far from the small town where I grew up. It is not always easy being away from family and friends we love, but there is so much peace that comes when you are at the center of God’s will.
As freeing as it is to trust God in the so-called large details of life, trusting him in the smaller ones has brought me more peace than you can imagine. It has changed my life! I used to worry and stress constantly, just ask my husband. Knowing that God is in control and resting in that keeps me from worrying about what people think, trying to manipulate situations to produce a desired outcome (aka. my will), wasting time in vain pursuits, etc. It’s okay if people don’t think I’m great, or beautiful, or smart, or even like me, if that is God’s will. It is okay if I don’t have the prettiest house on the block or own a house at all, if that is God’s will. It’s okay if I don’t get that job, or I don’t get that promotion, or the work I do goes unnoticed, if that is God’s will. I don’t have to waste my time trying to figure out all the details of my life, I can leave that in God’s more than capable hands. And when difficult, hard things come my way, like the sickness or loss of a loved one, I know that even that too has been ordained by God and he will be my refuge, even as I suffer.
Last but not least, when the difficult things do come, or even the small daily challenges we fight to submit our will to the father’s (trust him), pouring out our heart to God, like the psalmist encourages us to do in this verse, is so helpful. He loves and cares for us deeply, more even than a loving human parent is capable of (see Matthew 7:11). That amazes me now that I am a parent. The love that I feel for my daughters is overwhelming at times and that is nothing compared to the love God has for me!
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