In addition to the usual verse studies, I am trying out regular devotional thoughts. These are intended to be shorter posts (no more than a two-minute read). I pray they are helpful in your walk with the Lord. This is the first.
“In the Lord I take refuge; How can you say to my soul, ‘Flee as a bird to your mountain…” (Psalms 11:1, NASB)
What is our instinct when we face trouble? We want to run. That instinct, in and of itself, is not bad. In fact, it has been placed within us by God. But Satan, copycat that he is, does not attempt to change our instinct to run. He seeks to change the destination we run to.
David’s life was filled with trouble. Here he contrasts two opposing destinations he could run to. The first is the Lord, who is a refuge. The second is a mountain.
The mountain is a place to escape, get above your troubles, and pretend they do not exist. It represents all the things we run to in this world to find peace and hope. The problem with the mountain is that trouble will always be able to find us, no matter how far we are above sea level.
The Lord is a refuge. In that refuge, we do not pretend to be without trouble. Instead, as we go through the trouble, we have a barrier. We have the covering and protection of our Lord. We have the peace and hope that the mountain can never give us.
What is powerful about this verse is its personal nature. It is not the mountain. It is your mountain. We all have our own escape strategies. We all have things, personal to us, that we tend to run to instead of the Lord.
So, what is your mountain? Where do you go to find peace when you should be taking refuge in the Lord? Confess that mountain to Him. Ask Him to help you point that running instinct toward Him instead.
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