The Lord Gave Me a Warning
“For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.” Psalm 27:5…………………
One early morning the Lord gave me a strong warning about something I had fallen into countless times through the years and something I was right on the verge of falling back into. He wanted to stop me before I fell, and in His loving mercy He issued the warning. It wasn’t until later that morning that I understood how in His awesome sovereignty and beloved wisdom He had led me to Psalm 27 two days in a row. The perfect psalm to walk hand in hand with the warning He gave me.
I had been going through something quite challenging, quite sad, and I was hurting over it, feeling raw, and bouts of fear were coming when I was not careful to guard my heart from the fiery awful darts of the enemy. I am sensitive to begin with, and always have been, but at this particular time I felt especially vulnerable. Just when I could have used the love and support of a close friend near and dear to my heart, my friend lashed out at me. And when the Lord led me to tell her I was hurt, she lashed out again. Hurt upon hurt! So what does this have to do with a warning from God, and how might this message be for you, dear friend?
Sometimes when we are hurt, and even more so when hurt comes upon hurt, we have a tendency to recoil from the hurt, and to run into a hiding place, to run for refuge, to fold our arms over our chests where we hurt, to try to protect ourselves from more hurt, to wall ourselves off, whether by physically isolating ourselves or simply by emotionally withdrawing, sometimes by cutting people off, temporarily or permanently, or simply to shut our mouths and hearts and to hold back our love, or any other manner of reactions that involve trying to keep ourselves from being hurt any further. We can run to all sorts of people, places, and things to hide ourselves, whether it be to hide under the covers of our bed, to run to alcohol and drugs, to simply refrain from speaking to someone, to move to another part of the country, anything at all.
The Lord warned me that morning, and reminded me, that HE IS MY HIDING PLACE, that HE IS MY REFUGE, that HE IS MY SAFETY, that HE IS MY FORTRESS, that HE IS MY SECRET PLACE, that HE IS MY PROTECTOR, HEALER, SAVIOR, and LORD. And He warned me, and compelled me to share with you this warning, that isolating, and withdrawing, and backing off and running away, and hiding, etc., in any other place or thing or person besides Him makes it such that we are UNAVAILABLE TO LOVE AND MINISTER TO OTHERS. Most of all, when we wall ourselves off and try to protect ourselves from more hurt in any way other than coming to Him, we WALL OFF GOD!
What did I need to do that day? What do we all need to do?
- SEEK REFUGE IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
- SEEK HEALING FROM GOD IN CHRIST
- SHOW LOVE AND MERCY AND FORGIVE THOSE WHO HURT US
- LET THE LORD PROTECT US AND STRENGTHEN US AND USE US IN OTHERS’ LIVES EVEN WHEN THAT MEANS IN THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO HURT US!
- DON’T SHUT THE LORD OUT!
- DON’T SHUT OTHERS OUT!
- BE FULLY SURRENDERED TO HIM WHEREBY WE CAN GROW IN INTIMACY IN OUR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST AND ARE FULLY AVAILABLE TO THE LORD TO BE USED BY HIM TO MINISTER TO A WORLD IN DESPERATE NEED OF CHRIST
There is a time and place to walk away from someone who is hurting us, and the Lord will by His Spirit through His Word and as He leads through the counsel of godly people who are well grounded in His Word let us know when we need to walk away from someone. But no matter what, we need to love, we need to forgive, and we need to above all else take our refuge and find our healing in Jesus and keep our hearts and lives open to fellowship with the Lord and to being available to minister to others.