God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Psalm 46:1-2 What goes through you mind when trouble comes? Fear, anxiety, worry? Does your mind kick into overdrive to devise a plan of how to fix things? Do you look for someone to blame and become angry with them? We’d like a trouble-free life, but we know it’s not a realistic expectation. Truth is, trouble will find us one way or another.
Things will fall apart. It’s just that way because we live in a fallen world NOT as God intended in the beginning. Adam and Eve thought they knew better, that it wouldn’t matter if they disobeyed and did what God told them not to do. Their decision to eat of the fruit a rebellion against God, changed everything from that moment on. No more paradise on this earth, even though we make every effort we can to get back to some sense of paradise.
For instance, you plan the perfect vacation to a paradise- like location. You make your plans, book your flight (or plan a travel route), get everything packed. You look forward to the fine cuisine, relaxation on the beach or great fishing or whatever else will make it like paradise. You finally get to the location and the weather turns bad or you get sick and end up staying in bed and near a bathroom all week. A lousy time in paradise, huh? What then? How do you respond? Anger, regret, maybe frustration in realizing you’re not in as much control as you thought?
Vacations to exotic places of paradise on earth are not bad.
But they cannot be an adequate help in trouble, for trouble can come even there. Truth is, our only certain hope when things fall apart is this: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help when things fall apart.
God is our only ever-present help. But we easily forget this.
No wonder later in Psalm 46 we find these words: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.” (v. 10) The Bible mentions many ways in which God is exalted, but none clearer than in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the death he died on the cross as a substitute for our sins of thinking we can find refuge and strength and help from anyone or anything other than God. We come to another Easter Sunday is the 20th of this month. It is the high point of the Christian faith, for it is upon the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death that the whole of Christianity bases it’s credibility. As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, if Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, our faith is in vain.
But we don’t have to wait for Easter to honor and exalt our Lord, this year or any year.
We can do so any time we are willing to be still long enough to realize that only God Almighty can be our ever-present help in trouble. Not vacations in “paradise” nor any other earthly means we might arrange or seek out, but God and God alone can bring us peace and assurance even when things fall apart.
What steps will you take to be still and know that he is God? It could be right now, by taking at least five minutes to simply be still and pray. Ask God to quiet your heart and mind to realize you’re not in charge of making paradise happen, but He is.
Maybe you need to confess your futile attempts to control the circumstances of your life for what they are: futile efforts to make paradise happen on your terms.
Things will fall apart.
Sometimes often for some.
But when they do, it can be an opportunity to remember: God is our refuge. He alone is our paradise of peace and comfort in this fallen world.
Rev. Randy Crane is the pastor at Waldensian Presbyterian Church in Monett. He may be reached at cranes5@hotmail.com.
