On Guard

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust." (Psalm 91)

The Lord Jesus said that His people should go into their closets and pray in secret to the Father who would in return reward them openly with His answers. I don't know where your closet is, but I do know that we need a regular place to meet with God. He is a God of order and if He is like us then He too requires time and place to build relationship. It's not something new to us to be available at a certain place and a certain time to meet with people regularly for all kinds of activities. We have board rooms, coffee shops, parks, and fellowship halls where we meet with one another religiously. We have day planners, calendars, and appointment books of all types and sizes. We have reminders that help us everywhere such as post it notes, alarms on our cell phones, and rubber bands around our wrists. I believe the most important appointment that we need to have as children of God is a regular daily time in His presence.

The truth of it is that these times we're living in are saturated with all kinds of distractions. Television, radio, satellite stereo, Internet, cable, and cell phones are constantly calling out to us, "over here, over here, over here" not to mention the visual traffic everywhere we turn with newspapers, magazines, and billboards steadily bombarding us. I mean it, I can't think straight sometimes because of the enormous amount of stimulus that or culture is hurling at us all at once. This has been deemed the "information age", but sadly enough most of it is cumbersome at best and purely unnecessary at the least. We still only have 24 hours in a day and so many so called time savers at our disposal and we still complain that we can't keep up. Our rushed, hurried pace is killing us and we just keep going hoping that there is a pill, fountain of youth, or magic wand that will keep us from exploding from the stress. Well, there is a cure for us who know Jesus and are aware of our need to spend time with Him. I have found the place where I can begin each day with joy, peace, and love. The place where I consistently find both rest and strength for the day is in my room with the door shut and my heart open. There is no one here except me and the Lord and I cherish that time and place together with Him.

You see, there is no longer a problem with me spending time with the Lord because I have come to know that the rewards of it are so much greater than the losses that I incur when I don't abide in His shadow. No, the problem that I seem to face now is preserving that time from all the other things that are competing for my attention. I now know that I have to be relentless in my defense of my closet hours. Have you ever seen a Hockey goalie decked out in full uniform? They are ferocious looking. They have on that cool looking helmet that covers their head and faces, shoulder pads, big leg protectors, and carry a big old stick to swat away anything that moves near that little bitty goal that they guard with their lives. I mean they are a formidable foe when it comes to staving off attack. We have to be the same when it comes to defending our goal of staying in close to the Lord. He is our fortress and refuge where we are safe from the plans, schemes, and snares of the evil one, but the enemy knows this and will use anything he can to lure us away from our protection. The sad part is that we usually fall for it and are constantly found letting minor distractions place themselves between us and our Father. Have you ever seen a ship that is poorly anchored to the sea bottom. You may not notice right away, but eventually you will see that the ship has been slowly but surely drifting away form it's original spot safe in the harbor. We too need to be aware of our anchor. Are we solidly grounded in our Lord by spending regular quality time with Him. And are we on guard to fight off every threat against our goal. Please don't let worldly issues crowd out heavenly crowns this week as you seek to spend time with the most important Person in your life. God bless you. faithfully, brotherdevon.