“I have confidence in your strength; you are my refuge, O God … I will praise you, my defender. My refuge is God, the God who loves me …”
– Psalm 59:9, 17, Good News Bible
The Psalms are filled with verses about God our refuge:
- Psalm 9:9 says that the Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a place of safety in times of trouble.
- In Psalm 31:3, the Psalmist reminds God that He is our refuge and defense and asks for guidance.
- Psalm 59:16 is filled with the songs of celebration of the strength and constant love of our Refuge God.
- Psalm 62:8 encourages us to tell all our problems to God, to trust Him at all times, for He is our refuge.
And there are so many more references along this line. But have you ever stopped to wonder what that means? About what the title “refuge” has to teach us about our relationship with God? I have to admit, when I was younger, this terminology was lost on me. It seemed so … churchy. “God is our refuge,” seemed so trite and simple and … unexciting to me. I didn’t really understand it, but I didn’t like it. That is, until God opened my eyes to the power of this name of God a few years ago, captured my imagination with it, and drew me closer to Him through the analogy. This morning I’d like to share with you about who this great God is, as revealed in His name of “Refuge,” and invite you into His presence … But first, I should perhaps direct your thinking a little bit. When I think about God as my refuge, I think of a Wildlife Refuge. So, what is a wildlife refuge? What does it do?
Natural Habitat
When I think of a wildlife refuge, the first thing I think of is “natural habitat.” It’s a place of protected property where no industrial or residential development is allowed to occur, where the land is left vastly in its natural state, and the animals that live on it are allowed to roam free as they would have before urbanization took over. The Arctic Wildlife Refuge in Alaska was described as containing, “remote, complete, and undisturbed lands,” that are “home to some of the most diverse and spectacular wildlife in the arctic.”[1] It is a place of peace, a place of wholeness, of creativity, where animals are expected to multiply and grow and become spectacularly wild again. It is the place wild animals belong – in nature. A refuge is very different from a zoo in this way. A zoo cages animals, puts them in synthetic, man-made areas that simulate their natural habitat and sustain life … but do not allow for true freedom. The creatures in a zoo exist in captivity only, depending on their captors for everything – food, exercise, mates, etc. …
That’s what I think is so powerful about God being our refuge. He is our natural habitat, the place our heart longs to be, our place of greatest freedom. He is the “place” in which our hearts can go to be truly “undisturbed” and filled with a peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:6-7). He does not attempt to cage us in, tame us down, deceive us into believing that a cramped and man-made life is all there is – in fact, He desperately wants to liberate us from that! He wants us to see and partake in the adventure, the wildness we were created to explore, wants us to be vibrantly healthy, to truly inhabit all the God-given strength and majesty and beauty we were created to experience. He wants us to expand our horizons, our vision for the future, wants us to multiply and bear fruit in a wondrous and spectacular way, as each person we lead to Christ will become a new creation, a new creature in all its glory. When God is our refuge, we are freed from the busyness and noise of our commuter world to experience the vastness of His Kingdom, the beauty and splendor and timelessness of His eternity – and to revel in it! How glorious!
So why do so many Christians live a limited life? Why do they live as though Christianity is a “zoo,” meant to cage their potential and their wildness? Because the enemy has lied to them about the source of their captivity. It is the world that longs to capture us, to put us in captivity, to parade us before a watching public in a weakened and limited environment, to make the rest of the watching world believe a life with Christ is dull and quiet and un-adventurous. That is not what God wants. Psalm 31:8 in the Good News Bible says, “You have not let my enemies capture me; you have given me the freedom to go where I wish.” This is the freedom of our Refuge God. He will not willingly let us be captured – unless we choose to be enslaved to the lies of the Enemy. God is always waiting and watching, waiting to bring us out into the open spaces of His love for us. He is our Refuge.
No Poaching
Furthermore, in a Wildlife Refuge, no hunting is allowed. Anyone who trespasses on the land to take wildlife is guilty of poaching and could face jail time, fines, forfeiture of hunting gear, and/or permanent loss of their hunting license[2]. Likewise, in God, we are protected from hunters, those who would seek our lives and our souls, particularly the devil. When we are communing in God, when we are reveling in Him as our Refuge, the Enemy can do nothing to us. He can tempt us, but He cannot force us to break communion with God. He can try to steal from us, but Proverbs 6:31 says that when a thief is caught, he must pack back seven times more than he stole. The only way the Poacher of our souls can really get us is if he lures us out of the refuge. Then we’re fair game; we’re unprotected. So, if we’re willfully running from God and the refuge He provides for us – God cannot rebuke the devourer for us (Malachi 3). We must submit to His authority and obey His Word, trusting in His heart for us, to remain under His protection, just like animals in a Wildlife Refuge have to stay within the physical confines of the refuge. If they cross out of the designated area, jump over a fence or something – any hunter who wants to can take a shot at them. The same is true of our relationship with God. He has created a safe place for us – in Himself, a beautiful place filled with all we need for life, joy, and adventure – but it is ultimately our choice whether we stay there or not.
Oh, and there’s so much more I could say about this. I could talk about how a Wildlife Refuge is in itself a call to be wild, to be free, to be dangerous and powerful – like God has called us to be in Christ! I could talk about the Wildlife Refuges that are created specifically for abused animals, meant to be a place of healing and refreshment and return to their original glorious state – and how God, too, is our place of healing and restoration when we’ve been abused by the world! But … there’s not time … I hope, though, that your heart’s appetite is at least whetted to know the God who is our Refuge, and the Freedom He longs to bring you in Christ.
God bless, friends, and may your hearts’ vision be expanded and blessed by these pictures from Wild Life Refuges around the country (as gleaned from Google Images :) ).
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ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Aria; however, it's not about more people being like me or like anyone else. We need more people who are genuinely living their lives after Christ. He's the only Good in this world. Anything good you see in me is a dim reflection of His glory ... nothing else. Seek Him first. Encourage everyone around you to pursue Him that way, and pray as if your very life depends upon it. That's when things will begin to change in this world.
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