{"id":16642,"date":"2013-12-31T02:16:13","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T07:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=16642"},"modified":"2013-12-31T02:19:06","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T07:19:06","slug":"refuge-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/12\/31\/refuge-strength\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Refuge and Strength"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
\nTherefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
\nand the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
\nthough its waters roar and foam
\nand the mountains quake with their surging. Selah
\nPsalms 46:1-3<\/p>\n

Refuge.<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\n Strength.<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\n Ever-present.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The earth is giving way<\/span>, mountains are falling<\/span>, waters are roaring and foaming<\/span>, other mountains are quaking and surging<\/span>; these are the Biblical terms for what we now-a-days call \u201call the stuff that happens in our life.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, week, months and even years are the times when we search for a safe place to hide. We search for something and someone to give us the ‘oomph’ we need to conquer what we\u2019re facing. Unfortunately we look everywhere else instead of where we should be looking. This past Sunday in church the pastor talked about how the Bible is our \u2018instruction manual for life\u2019\u2014 it tells us everything we need to know when we need to know it.<\/p>\n

So when we need that safe place and when we need that source of strength we simply need to turn to God. He tells us clearly that He is our Refuge, He is our Safe Place, and He is our Strength, the Power we need to get through what we\u2019re going through.
\nI know that this is at times much easier said than done. I know that when our seas are surging and when our mountains are falling that we want to fix life ourselves, and we may find our refuge in worry and fear, we may find our strength in what we feel we can do to sort out whatever may be going on.<\/p>\n

The New Year is upon us and I want to challenge myself, and others, to live this passage in 2014. For myself I plan to write it in my planner. One day reminding myself that He is my Refuge, the other day reminding myself that He is my Strength. Do what works for you; remind yourself that when the stuff in life happens that we have a Refuge, and that that safe place will be our Strength to move forward.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s Pray<\/span><\/strong>:
\nDear Heavenly Father, You have given us all we need to live our lives. People ask if life comes with an instruction manual…some say no, but the true answer is \u2018yes.\u2019 This manual tells us that you are our Strength and Refuge. Lord, please give spiritual sensitivity to us so that we remember this in times of trouble. Let us run to You rather than to fear and worry. Thank You for a safe place\u2014a Refuge, and thank You for the strength to live this life. In Jesus name we pray, amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah Psalms 46:1-3 Refuge. Strength. Ever-present. The earth is giving way, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3173,1287,425,4945,4946,4944,3174,1075],"class_list":["post-16642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-daily-devotional","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-god-is-our-refuge","tag-god-is-our-strength","tag-psalms-461-3","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-tonya-ellison","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4kq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16642"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16645,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16642\/revisions\/16645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}