Lately I’ve been wishing we had a quiet cottage in the woods, or a cabin by the lake. I wanted to get away, clear my heart and mind and have my own personal religious retreat. But then I recalled, there aren’t any quiet woods nearby and we can’t afford a cabin on a lake. (They have too many mosquitos and alligators around here in Florida anyway!) Then I pulled out my Strong’s Concordance and began looking up the word refuge, and the first verse I came across was, “The Eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Deuteronomy 33:27 a

The thought of those everlasting…never tiring… never failing arms, gave me hope because God was already with me and with our family. In the middle of our busyness and bills, right in the center of the confusion, the demands, the doctor’s appointments and silly arguments. He is our religious retreat, and underneath us all are His eternal arms.

Next, I came to Psalm 46:1 and found that God is our refuge and strength, not in quiet times, not in successful moments, but when we are in trouble, facing questions, and feeling as if we can’t go on. God isn’t surprised by our struggles, nor shocked by the events that swirl around us. Though evil is in our world, its destructiveness is never our Lord’s will, but God uses even the terrible things that happen to work His plan. He opens for us a doorway into His refuge, so that when the enemy comes in like a flood, that we can find that God Himself is our refuge: safer than any cabin in the woods and more wonderful than any lake house ever was. He is our friend sticking closer than a brother and a Father who holds us in HIs arms in times of trouble!