[My Refuge]

Forgive me if this post is jumbled, its late, but I must write. ...

There are so many things I could worry about in my life.
So many things I could sit here and dwell upon;
there are things even this very night that I was frustrated with, things I shouldn't be so paranoid about, things that are in God's hands, and not in mine.

How could I define God's presence as something only found in certain places or certain environments? I have realized that I have at times, (tonight) and in many other situations, decided that the Lord was not as near to me, because I was surrounded by things that were not Christ glorifying. This is wrong!!! He is ALWAYS near to me! He is always here when I call to Him! The Holy Spirit is always making intercessions for me because I am completely and utterly incapable of bringing my requests before the Lord on my own, I am a depraved, meager, human. The Lord knows my thoughts and my prayers and the status of my heart, He knows my inner-most being, what do I have to fear?

I opened my window while thinking on these things tonight only to hear the majestic roll of thunder on these Kansas plains, and the brilliant bolts of lightning that accompanied.
Wow.
What power! What beauty! This is just thunder and lightning, something we Kansan's experience a lot, but it takes my breathe away every time.
The Creator that makes the thunder and lightning, who displays His power in the majesty of his creation and the change of the weather....If He can create such beauty, if He can control every aspect of the weather, why should I worry about the possibility of having cancer someday? Or whether I'll have food to eat? Or where I will live next year? Or what job I will have in the future? The Lord is steadfast and strong. He will give me strength and hope when I am the most willing to surrender my selfish desires for control over my own life to Him.

He has the ultimate power, He deserves the praise....all of it! He is my rock and my fortress, my present help in time of worry or need or in any situation.


Rom 8:31: What then shall we say to this, if God is for us, who can be against us?? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for US, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?? ...

vs. 35: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

vs. 38-39: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen and amen.