God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
The blessedness of strength is never so appreciated as when one recognizes how truly weak one is. We all experience this when we come out of an illness or surgery that brings us to a state of weakness. Once health is regained, it feels so comforting and secure.
Only when dangers in life are so intimate in their threats that a refuge is cherished.
The world as seen through the innocent eyes of a child does not exist for the grown adult, full of wounds and scars – to them the world is a hard, cruel, unforgiving, uncaring place of lonely darkness.
But when GOD is in a person’s life and they worship and adore Christ as the Light that dispels darkness (JOHN 1:5), the Love that cares with the deepest of compassion, that demonstrates mercy, that freely offers grace and forgiveness and healing that the world becomes a better place.
“A very present help” – a constant, immediate help in trouble (ISAIAH 65:24) and dearest companion at all times. What A Friend We Have in JESUS, our REFUGE! Look throughout the history of Scriptures for the faithful testimony of GOD’s protection and care over Israel! We can claim the same for us, the church of the LORD JESUS CHRIST:
PSALM 46:11
The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
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2 PETER 1:3-4
3 … His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
As human beings we have the power to change our habits just as we can change our habitats, good or bad. Yet as far as our nature is concerned – “a leopard cannot change his spots”, nor can we change our sin-nature.
Surprisingly, neither can GOD change such a rebellious, desperately (“incurable” JER 17:9) wicked heart. This is why He must create in us a new heart (PSALM 51:10; EZEK 36:26).
A direct, new creation from GOD: that’s our new heart; our spiritual rebirth. This is as new and as direct from the LORD as when GOD said, “Let there be light…” His promise is faithfully kept for those who believe the Gospel and in faith, surrender to JESUS so that we share in His divine nature (2 PET 1:4), which then results in spiritual war (GAL 5:17).
By faith, we are destined to win this war (1 JOHN 5:4), because Christ will complete what He started in us (PHIL 1:6). This is a promise, exceedingly great and precious indeed, to all who have inherited this “divine nature” by the Spirit of GOD Who sanctifies us just as certainly as we’ve been redeemed by the blood of the LAMB, having effectively escaped from “…the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
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