Imago Scriptura 82 - Psalm 71 and Romans 8 - Refuge

It doesn't matter our age but we always have places of refuge. Places to go when things seem out of control or seem scary or we are hurting. For me it has been places both physical and mental. At various times, my refuge is my family, at times it is nature center here or a local walking path, or its simply losing myself in a book. In those places of refuge, I can often hear the voice of God when all the other noises of the world want to drown out the Savior.

Psalm 71 really evoked those places for me. King David spoke of the refuge he finds in God throughout the Psalm. I wonder how and in what he experienced that refuge. Was it in a place he went? Was it in a person in whom he confided? Was it in a spirit of of prayer?  

But David is no different from me in the ways though that he sought refuge in ways that were not what God desires from us (this is vast understatement when considering the story of Bathsheba and her husband). Our refuges today can be in healthy things like people and places but we can also seek refuge in that which is unhealthy and damaging - overeating, addictions, toxic people, and the list could go on. I've sought refuge in some of those places in my life and the thing that I realize today is that while some of the sounds of fear and pain might disappear for while, the voice of God is not heard in those things. 

I am grateful for David's reminder today for me. I am grateful also for the ultimate promise from Romans 8 today that nothing - height, depth, powers, anything in all creation - nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.