I was awakened at about 2:15 one morning and had difficulty falling back to sleep, being plagued with “popcorn worries” – those pesky worries about one thing or another that keep popping up. After taking authority over Satan (we know where this sort of stuff ultimately comes from), I turned to The Bible and saw this passage:
Deuteronomy 33:27-29, esp. 27a
27 The eternal God is your refuge,
And underneath are the everlasting arms;
Elisabeth Elliot used to quote this every time she opened her radio program “Gateway to Joy”. I reflected on how truly awful were her circumstances when her husband Jim Elliot, along with four missionaries, was murdered by the Aucas of Ecuador. She, a young mother, suddenly thrust into widowhood, along with four other young women. And that in the wilds of Ecuador, far from civilization. I’ve read her book “Through Gates of Splendor” and heard her relate how God got her through those awful days, then led her to minister to the very people who murdered her husband. I thought, “My circumstances are nothing like that!”
The eternal God… this life is so fleeting, so temporary. What a great relief and hope we have because He is an eternal God! Always with us! Always before us! Always beside us! Always in us!
The eternal God was there in eternity past, even before time began. And there He was in all His glorious grace… and from eternity He gave His grace to us and called us according to His holy purpose (2 Timothy 1:9)
The eternal God gives us real hope for that which is yet to come. Our future is secure because of His eternality. Titus 1:2, “in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began”.
The Eternal God has always been… even beyond “existence”, He is I AM, in an eternal now that supercedes time and space. Infinitely beyond the dimensions of what we measure as yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Is your refuge…. a refuge is needed by those in imminent danger. We speak of “refugees”, those in grave danger who flee to a place of safety. A refuge is a place of safety from danger. GOD is our refuge, our impenetrable place of safety… and what a great, impervious, mighty, protecting Refuge He is! We are always and ever safe in God Our Refuge. Psalm 91 speaks so powerfully to this:
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most HighShall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
We dwell and live and abide in the greatest place of safety, the One who is ever God Our Refuge. Dangers of all kinds may swirl about us…. but we are in the place of total security… God Our Refuge!
Romans 8:35-39 speaks so powerfully to about this great reality…
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:“For Your sake we are killed all day long;We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As if having an Eternal God who is also our Refuge was not enough, look at the next part of Deuteronomy 33:27…
And underneath are the everlasting arms
Behold the strong force and beauty of such gracious words! All the dimensions of our Eternal God and perfect safety as our Refuge…. enfold us…. carry us… uplift us… support us… with everlasting arms that are underneath us! I am so taken by this! As truly awesome as the eternality of God and God as our Refuge and all that brings us…. here is this profound expression of love and care! So we are enfolded, so we are upheld and kept from utterly falling. HE is underneath us with everlasting arms!
Strong arms…. that last forever! My life is always kept safe by such strong arms! My stability in a world gone outrageously mad is sure because His everlasting arms hold me, support me, care for me and love me!
Allow these realities, these truths of our Great God and Father soak deep into your soul. Let it’s rich truth wash over you, freeing you from every doubt, worry and care!
“The eternal God is your refuge,
And underneath are the everlasting arms
Photo credit: Motoki Tonn on Unsplash