From EDIFIED!
“You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.”
Psalm 119:114
Praise be to you, O Lord God, Yahweh, the Great and Holy One. You are utterly other than anything in your creation.
–You are beyond comprehension—yet you have made yourself known.
–You are beyond understanding—yet you clothed yourself in human form.
–You are Holy and pure—yet you love sinners.
–You are totally just—yet you have made it possible for mercy to triumph over justice.
–You are perfect—yet you have great patience with imperfect, twisted, rebellious, stubborn people.
–You are complete in yourself—yet you offer relationship to those who don’t deserve it.
–You are righteous—yet you forgive the unrighteous.
–You are eternal—yet you enter time to bring mortals into your forever Kingdom.
I praise you that you have made yourself a refuge for us, an escape from self and sin and Satan. In you we can be freed from the senseless, meaningless, randomness of the unregenerate world—because in you there is meaning and purpose and direction.
–You are a refuge from the hopelessness, the powerlessness, the futileness of human life.
–You are a refuge from our own anger, frustration, impotence and self-pity.
–You are a refuge from the evil of men and devils, from injustice, violence and shame.
–You are a refuge from fear, anxiety and anguish.
–You are a refuge from idol worship, materialism and the tyranny of the urgent.
–You are a refuge from junk stress, wrong values and short-term thinking.
–You are a refuge from harmful, self-destructive, caustic behavior.
–You are a refuge from lust, lying and laziness.
–You are a refuge from failure, factionalism and favoritism.
–You are a refuge from all that is negative, sinful and impure. .–You shield us from the daily onslaught of Satan and his forces.
In you we are safe, in you we are accepted, in you we are protected. Praise be to you for your powerful, proven provision. You have given us the armor needed to stand. You have offered us power, endurance, guidance and light—all we need to walk in the valley of this world fallen, to escape the corruption that comes through evil desires and to be more than conquerors.
As we come to you and dwell in the shelter of your Word and the way you have given us, you shield us from wrong thoughts, wrong desires and wrong perspectives. You shield us from what is distracting, destructive and demanding. You shield us from what is caustic, competitive and cynical. You shield us from what is foolish, selfish and unwise.
Truly, Lord God, Triune King, Eternal Ruler, Owner of everything, you are our hope: our only Hope; our Huge, Eternal, Almighty, Sustaining and entirely Adequate Hope. And your Word gives us what we need to nurture and sustain this Hope.
Praise be you, the God of hope who desires to fill us with all joy and peace, if we will only trust in you, so that our lives may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:13).
Prayer: “Yes, Lord, may the fragrance of your hope flow out of my life throughout the day and edify all those around me! May praise for the Eternal, Great, Good and Glorious God be the keynote of my life, of my day. Glory be to you, the God of Hope, the God of Protection, the God of Refuge, the God who is our shield! Amen.”
