A temporary escape

I look up to the hills, but where will my help really come from? My help will come from the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth. He will not let you fall. (Psalm 121:1-3)

I have spent many hours looking for some form of help simply because I got myself into predicaments that were of my own making - my own stubbornness, pride, fear, or anger getting me all muddled up in some situation I didn't really want to be involved in. It happens to the best of us, my friends. We say something without thinking it through and then wonder why we are 'reaping' such a backlash. We get involved in issues not our own, then wonder why things get out of control. The more we want to be in control of our lives, the more we can expect to encounter these kinds of troubles. The more we desire to allow God's control over our lives, the more likely we will be to avoid such conflicts and concerns. There is but one place to look to when we are in need of help (even when we are in the muddle because of our own making), and that is to him.

Our help isn't man-made. It is God-prepared, God-implemented, and God-delivered. We might think we can 'help' our way out of a particular challenge in life, but if we are to be honest here, we don't have any idea how to 'manage' the challenge, much less redeem ourselves! God's assurance to us is that difficulties may come (even those of our own making), but he will not let us fall. That means we may encounter a bit of a rocky course for a bit, but we won't allow us to end up in a place we don't belong. When we fall, we are where we don't belong! God doesn't want us to end up being pulled into compromise, much less full-on sinful acts. When we are in need of his help to avoid sin, do you think he just lets us fall since we were tempted? Absolutely not! He does wait for us to ask for his help, though!

Let's remember what God says here - we are to look to him for help - not the protection of any other source. In the times this was written, attacking armies would put the cities they were attacking into a 'flight' or 'fight' mode. Those who would not stand to fight would flee to the hills, hiding in caves or other outcroppings that would offer them temporary escape. God says we aren't to look to the 'hills' to find our help - simply because they offer us only TEMPORARY escape. God's plan is that we look to him when tempted - because his plan is to deliver us fully from that temptation! Just sayin!

No escape plan for me

Have you ever hidden so well in that old time game of hide & seek so that you were absolutely unable to be discovered? That which is hidden is not visible - it isn't easily perceived, or has little to no evidence it even exists. If we are playing a kid's game, being hidden in such a manner ensures that you will be declared the 'winner' of the game. In real life, always hiding so well isn't going to ensure you 'win', is it? It just means you remain undiscovered! When our hiding place is in God himself, it isn't that we aren't able to be discovered - it is just that his barrier of protection over our lives is so impenetrable that nothing can get at us! 

You are my hiding place and my battle-covering. I put my hope in Your Word. (Psalm 119:114)

When times challenge us a little, do we turn to God as our covering, or do we simple hunker down a little in some 'place' we have designed for ourselves as a means of escape? I daresay there are a lot of people who merely go through life with an 'escape plan' always at the ready. They don't have any real 'battle-covering' they can rely upon - but merely wing it. When times get harder than they would like them to be, they resort to whatever escape plan they have concocted. Now, this may work for a while, but if you are always 'escaping' rather than facing challenges head-on, the battles don't go away - they just are hidden from our view for a while.

When God is our covering - our battle isn't 'blocked from our view' - it is faced head-on. We can rest in the assurance his covering is sufficient to take us right through that battle, no holds barred. It is one thing to be in the battle and fighting well, but quite another to have been in the battle so long that you become weary and worn by the constant demands of the warfare, though. That's why God is both our 'battle-covering' (protection in the fight) and our hiding place (protection so we can rest a while). Escaping into his restful hiding place isn't escaping the battle - it is regenerating our abilities to continue the fight.

We need both, don't we? We cannot always go through life with an 'escape plan', but we can go through it with the knowledge God will be both our shield and defender when the battle rages hot and heavy, and a source of comfort and healing when we just need a moment or two to regroup. We aren't escaping the battle whenever we retreat because he meets us right there in the midst of the battle and just provides a shelter for us right there. One who retreats into a full escape mode isn't sticking around for the battle - they are working to be clearly out of it entirely. One who retreats into the hidden shelter of his wings is merely allowing him to hold them steady in the midst of it. Just sayin!

Muck and Mire - Hard to Disguise

It was D.L. Moody who said,"I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man." I would have to agree whole-heartedly with Mr. Moody - my own "self" gets the best of me without much effort at all more than any other person does and THEY are the ones who have set out to get the best of me! Time can get the best of me without much effort. People can be my worst obstacles, and they don't even know they are sometimes. Then there is this whole struggle with wanting my own way when I know perfectly well it may not be what is right or best for me. It is not so much that the "thing" was wrong as much as the "desire" behind the thing was not exactly "right on". Indeed, I can "get in my own way" more than anything else at times!

But remember this—the wrong desires that come into your life aren’t anything new and different. Many others have faced exactly the same problems before you. And no temptation is irresistible. You can trust God to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it, for he has promised this and will do what he says. He will show you how to escape temptation’s power so that you can bear up patiently against it. (I Corinthian 10:13 TLB)

Notice it doesn't say we won't have temptation, or that our own self wants or self-directed focus won't get in the way of making right choices. It says with each of these things God will "show us" how to escape that power AND to bear up patiently AGAINST it. So it is really a battle we are being instructed about here, my friends. A battle of the "self" mind or will against the desire of our heart to fulfill the will of God. Both are tremendous forces and some of us find ourselves spending way too much time struggling through instead of "doing what he says".

The thing I want us to see this morning is not so much that we struggle, but what the "nature" of the struggle really is. Look again at our passage - the struggle we face isn't "anything new or different". They are the same problems we have faced before and the same ones others face. You might say your present problem is much different than the ones you have had in the past, but deep down, at the root of the matter, all problems are really very similar - they are a battleground for the will. Whose "will" will win out? That is the real crux of the issue.

If we are to understand the problem before us, we need to stop seeing it as unique to just us. Others experience the same issues - they may not admit it readily, but they do. We all have moments of greed. We all struggle with lust on occasion - in one of its many forms. We all give into desires that only have the basis of bringing joy or satisfaction to us and no one else. Nothing we face is uniquely different. The set of circumstances that "set us up" for the opportunity or struggle may be slightly different, but the root of the issue is really the same. We ALL struggle with "self".

The sooner we recognize this, the sooner we may bring down some of our facades and begin to be more genuine with each other. I think this is the single most important need in our churches today - to be genuine. Christians are GREAT at wearing the "holiness mask" and denying their life is a mess of muck and mire. Instead of covering it up, imagine how much more we might learn from the insights of others if we'd just realize others have had similar muck and mire moments in their lives and they might have actually figured out how to move beyond them! Just saying!

Who's been sitting in my car?

I watched a short news clip the other night about a black bear in Colorado who managed to find his way into an automobile parked in the family's driveway, then lock himself inside.  Imagine coming out to leave for the day one morning and finding a little bit of a scary ball of fur in your front seat!  While the homeowners were walking round and round the car trying to figure out how he got inside the car and if there was a way to actually let him out, the bear moved from side to side, almost petitioning to be set free.  His gaze through the now pretty smeared up windows was not one of anger, but of pleading to be free again.  I don't think the bear liked it anymore than the homeowner did that he had ended up stuck in that car overnight!  Newscasters commented on how bears can find themselves in the most unusual predicaments in life - all because curiosity got the best of them.  Honestly, I don't think we humans fair much better on that one!

Any temptation you face will be nothing new. But God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can handle. But He always provides a way of escape so that you will be able to endure and keep moving forward. 
(I Corinthians 10:13)

As Paul reminds us, any temptation we face, regardless of how intriguing or inviting it is, it isn't something brand spanking new - it has been faced by someone and even more than once by one of us!  Curiosity gets the better of us and we find ourselves totally "encapsulated" in what we thought was just going to be a little "exploration" of that temptation.  In short order, we find ourselves fully engulfed and maybe even with the door shutting behind, making us feel totally trapped.  I can imagine the black bear didn't think about sitting in the comfort of the car all night instead of sleeping up in a tree limb as it usually did. It didn't imagine things would be different as it found a way "inside" what it had been only able to explore from the "outside" on previous occasions.  All temptation has the potential to get us to explore more than what we originally thought we'd be able to explore - we just have to "get into it" and then we risk the "door shutting behind us" as we do!

Imagine being the black bear for a moment.  You observe these humans day after day, getting inside these shiny objects parked right there in front of the house, then observing the movement of these objects somewhere out of view until magically they reappear at a later hour, only to see the humans freely exit those shiny objects and go about their merry way inside the security of their home.  Now, you might begin to think you'd like to try out what is on the inside of that shiny object, and perhaps see if you could be transported somewhere exciting only to return a little later as though nothing out of the ordinary had taken place in your life.  We kind of treat temptation this way at times - as though we can get into it and be transported away by it - then believe we will return totally unscathed after we are through exploring it.  How's that been working for the rest of you?  I know it hasn't worked well in my own experience!

I kind of felt like I imagined the black bear felt when it realized it was not "inside" what it didn't know how to escape because the "way in" didn't seem to have the same "way out".  If that bear got in by a door it was able to open from the outside, it probably could have exited the same way - but the way out didn't work quite the same way as the way in.  The outside door handle was easier to open than the inside one - it didn't look the same, nor did it behave the same. This is often the way it is with whatever tempts us "into" something - the way out doesn't quite look the same as the way in and this can confound us on occasion.  As with the bear, what we do while we feel trapped by our temptation is often telling about how the temptation has affected us.  As the game wardens opened the hatch of that car to allow the bear "safe passage" from what had entrapped him probably much of the night, the homeowners gazed in horror at the destruction "inside".  From the outside, all appears as normal.  When the door was opened, it was a totally different picture!

You see, when we feel "trapped" we often look for a way of escape.  The bear did just that, pawing and clawing at every nook and cranny of the interior, pulling down headliner, tearing through upholstery, ripping up carpet, and turning over contents of stored things.  In spite of all his efforts, he remained trapped.  All the ways of escape he imagined just didn't pan out.  It is like that for us, as well.  We try to find our own way of escape, making a total mess of things, then becoming so totally frustrated with the mess we find ourselves in that we just make more mess.  On the outside, things still look fine.  On the inside, the whole world is topsy-turvy!  Paul reminds us of a couple of important things:  1) temptation has a luring appeal and will be ever present in our lives; 2) there is a way of escape, even though we don't readily see it; and 3) God desires nothing more than to be both the one who delivers us from that temptation, but also diverts our attention away from what seems innocently appealing to us!  Just sayin!

Conflict is meant to be faced

¹ I've already run for dear life straight to the arms of God. So why would I run away now...   ⁷ God's business is putting things right; he loves getting the lines straight, setting us straight. Once we're standing tall, we can look him straight in the eye.  

(Psalm 11:1, 7)

In life, we face times when those around us are advising us to go one way, when we are pretty confident that God has something entirely different in mind for us. We are pulled between the advice of our friends and the nudge of the Spirit we are feeling.  King David asks a question that we all probably ask at one time or another - "Why would I run when I am already in the very best place I can be?"  There is no place more secure than directly in the hands of God.

David is being challenged to flee to the hills - run away, escape, make himself scarce - so his enemies don't overtake him, so a challenge does not overwhelm him.  He has two choices - stand and face what comes his way, or flee and count on the mountains to protect him.  His answer to his "advisors" is that he sees no sense in fleeing to the mountains - God has not made his residence there, but in David's heart!

David has put his trust in God's keeping grace - he is counting on being held in the hands of God regardless of the circumstances that are coming his way.  He relates his trust in his affirmation of where it is that he has found his hope - in God's arms.  Then he gives us insight into that hope he has - God is in the business of setting things right!  He not only orchestrates the situation, but he "orchestrates us" throughout that situation.  He delights in setting things in order - marking out a path to follow and then walking with us along that path. For that reason alone, David will not flee when the going gets rough.

It is natural to desire to flee - it is part of our make-up to want to preserve what we already have found enjoyment in.  David says he finds great joy in keeping himself near to the heart of God.  You cannot get closer to the heart of someone than being in their arms!  His is not a casual relationship with God - it is one that has developed a sense of intimate communion.  God has drawn him near, set him upright, and now he is looking God in the eye - no shame, no fear, no barrier to intimate fellowship with a holy God.  Why?  Because God has set things right in his heart.

David gives us just a glimpse at our choice in conflict - run and hide, or stand and be strong in the power of the Lord.  I'd like to think we'd all choose the latter, but I know the reality of our fickle emotions - we sometimes run!  When we find ourselves ready to "bolt", we would do well to ask the question:  "Is God going to be more present, more available, more willing to meet with us wherever it is we are running than he is in the midst of the challenge we are facing?"  If we have truly asked ourselves that question in sincerity, we likely will know the answer is "no".  

Running affords only a temporary escape from the present conflict.  Wherever we go, conflict inevitably will occur.  There is really no escape - just a chance to face what "giants" lie before us and take them on in the power found in relying on his grace to get us through.  Running is a means of "going around" what gives us concern - rather than facing it head on.  David reminds us that God's methods are to face things head on.

So, whatever the challenge today - whatever the conflict you face - run to the arms of Jesus first.  There you will find all you need for the way to be made straight, your own life ordered in such a way that you will be able to face the challenge ahead.  

A refuge like no other

^1-2 God, the one and only— I'll wait as long as he says. Everything I need comes from him, so why not? He's solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul, an impregnable castle: I'm set for life. 

(Psalm 62:1-2 The Message Bible)

¹ Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. ² Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

(Psalm 62:1-2 The New International Version)

David spends a good deal of time in this Psalm addressing his enemies, those he considers to be is close friends, and even himself.  He is proclaiming his position in God - impregnable, immovable, solid.  When one finds that they are mobile - they are capable of being moved - changeable in mood, appearance, or purpose. When one is immobile - there is a fixed position in mind - incapable of being moved or not moving at all.

David was surrounded by enemies - the battle was ON.  Though surrounded on all sides, he declares that he is fixed on God and will not be moved as a result.  Sometimes the afflictions in our lives become so much like huge weights that serve the purpose of pulling us down.  When we see them through the eyes of Jesus, we realize that they are meant to help us dig deeper into Christ, not to crush us or bury us alive in the mire of the pit.

When affliction comes, we have many responses - one of the most common is fear.  Fear is an open door for Satan to enter.  Fear demonstrates a lack of confidence in our stability - we are admitting that we have the capacity of being moved or shaken.  If we are grounded in Christ, why does fear enter in at all?  Well, it comes because we have some forces at work in our life that want to make us believe that what we believe in, who we believe in, and the very foundation that provides in our lives is faulty.

Satan is constantly working to move us to DO wrong - he wants us saying wrong things, thinking wrong thoughts, demonstrating wrong actions.  He knows that if he can do this, he takes us out of step with God.  He places us on ground that is less secure and our movement forward is impaired.  If he gets us moving ahead of God's timing, or lagging behind when God is asking us to move forward, he gets us in a place where we are no longer on solid ground.

Sin in our own lives affects our solid foundation - tempting us to move in ways that are not honoring to God.  Whenever things like envy, anger, bitterness, revenge, lust or greed become the focus in our lives, we are on shaky ground.  These things pull us down faster than we realize.  We also have temptations that seek to destroy or damage our foothold that are more subtle, not always noticed for the effect they have.  Things like wrong types of friendships, pressure to conform to a peer group's values, or the pressure mounted by the media to conform to the societal values of the time are also placing this undue pressure on us to question our position in Christ.

There are some key points in our passage that we need to latch onto in order to avoid the pitfalls that make us movable, less "fixed" in our position in Christ.  First, our soul MUST find rest in God and no other source.  When there is rest, there is a purposeful cessation of activity - we stop trying to do what God has already done for us in the work of salvation.  Second, we must come to a place where we trust him at ALL times.  Trust is a total, unwavering reliance in his character, ability, and strength in our lives - we become dependent on him, not ourselves.  Third, we must pour out our heart and soul to him.  God desires intimate communion with his children - allowing all that is within (even our fears) to be expressed freely in his presence.  Last, but certainly not least, we must find God as our REFUGE.  He is the shelter we need - the escape and protection from danger we long for.  He should be our resort in times of difficulty, just as he is to be our enjoyment in times of great joy.

Get FIXED on God.  Get FIXED in God.  Then let God get FIXED in you.  You will find great safety, strength, and assurance in that foothold.