Feathers of Refuge

Let His feathers overshadow you. Find rest in the shade of his wings. Call upon him because he loves you more than the breath he breathed as a man. He will gather you together from the ends of the earth, where your heart was shattered and spread abroad. He will mend every piece and make you new. He will put new breath in your lungs and a new beat in your heart. He will give you a new melody to sing, and the glory that envelopes his throne will consume your heart and give you new life.
Let the strength of His wings protect you. Even in battle his mighty presence will befall the fray as you march onward to eternity. Make the shade of his wings your dwelling place for there alone is peace, even peace amidst trouble. He says, "Because you love me, I will rescue you and show you my salvation."
Let no fear enter your heart, for I am God and I will be your shelter. Come rest under my feathers of refuge and I will save you.

Stars

Sometimes I want to run away. I want to go far away from all of the things that could’ve been, all of the things that were. Who I have become is made of who I was and where I’ve been. Those stars up in the sky are like glittering memories. They are beautiful, but they are distant and they are, after all, gigantic burning spheres. Those gigantic burning spheres fill my mind and my heart. It aches to know they are there but I can’t help but look longingly after them. As I gaze into the velvety night sky glistening with those distant stars I can’t help but wonder what would happen if they were closer. What would happen if my memories were closer, if I could touch them and know them as they were when they were created? I think I would be very different. I wish there was a more poetic way to express my heart, but all I know is that my God has made me who I am today and he has used those memories, painful and sweet, to mold my being. Although the scars remain, although the stars are beautiful, although my heart aches with the burning memories, I will press on. I wish these words were more elegant, more passionate, more pretty. These words are merely an expression of my heart, a reminder of the wounds and a reminder of God’s healing touch. I can say with confidence: “Holy is the Lord, God Almighty!” God gave me a voice even though the ones he used to help me discover it are gone. God gave me words even though the things I once wrote about are distant memories. God gave me friendship even though some friends that once had a place in my heart are gone. But despite all of this God gave me hope and a future, God is still good; He is still mighty. He is still my everything. I will always have a reason to bow down before the Creator of heaven and earth. The air I breathe is worth giving to Him; each day I open my eyes is a day that is worth laying down at his feet, after all he is God Almighty.

I will sing.

I will write.

I will love.

I

Will

Worship. 

Proverbs 14:3

In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise will preserve them.

                

For example, in sociology today a guy was talking about how he is agnostic; he doesn't believe in a god, he believes in himself and the “power” of discovering yourself and the world around you. I could hear the pride in his words outpouring from his heart. We cannot be our own sustenance, for when we are at the end of ourselves where will we draw strength from if our “strength” was conjured up from somewhere within. When you run out of strength, hope and life, where will you go? Will you rely on yourself alone? It is impossible, if there is nothing within you to draw from then you have no way to help yourself out. I draw my strength from God alone because I have no strength, and I have no hope apart from him. I find that there is more honor in saying, “I can live without my own strength because I draw my strength from One who is more powerful than me, One who can give me the breath to live another day, One who can keep my heart beating independently of my own will to live”; there is more honor in saying that than in saying, “I am my own strength and by my own power I live.” There are too many questions in relying on your own “power”; you do not have the power to keep yourself alive if you've been seriously wounded or if you contract a deadly disease. You do not have the power to heal in and of yourself. You cannot control what happens around you. You cannot control the drunk drivers, or the murderers, or the cheaters or diseases or wounds. The only thing you can control is the choice to put your life in the hands of One who can control these things or the choice to remain confident in your own “power”. I can confidently say that I trust God with my life, and I trust that he is in control not only of the circumstances around me but also of my very life. I am confident that the air I breathe is from His lungs and the eyes I see with are given to me so that I can see Him, and the heart within me beats to the rhythm of his love, and the mind that I perceive with is tuned to his Word so I can understand that he is God and I am not. The greatest power you can have is only given by the One who is all-powerful, and even then it is His power within you and not your own.  

Perspective

Worship always puts things into perspective. God is so much grander and stronger than what we sometimes imagine him to be. Life is full of circumstances that tend to take our focus off of who God is, and it’s no wonder that happens because this world is cursed by sin. Sin is missing God’s mark; it is missing the whole point of why God created us. God put breath in our lungs to worship him and glorify him. When you are overwhelmed by life and overcome by sin, stop and take the time to worship God. Take time out of your busy day and read his life-giving Word; pray to the Almighty Creator who knew you in your mother’s womb; sing praises to the God who gave you breath and life and the choice to worship him. Worshipping God will put your life back into perspective.

Take a moment to sit quietly.

Now think about your life.

What is your life based on?

What obstacles have arisen and how has God helped you overcome them?

What victories have you been granted on account of God’s grace?

Count, if you can, all the joyous moments in which God has revealed some aspect of his character to you in a way that changed your whole perspective of him and of life?

Now, the purpose of these questions is to make you think about who God is to you. The Israelites faced a lot of obstacles while God was leading them through the wilderness and throughout their time in the Promised Land, and each time God did a mighty work among them he commanded them to make some sort of memorial to remember what he did (Joshua 4). Humans are frail and we forget things often. God desires that we remember what he has done in our lives. We cannot thank him for his love, mercy and grace if we don’t remember how he manifested those things to us. If you are struggling to think of something remember this: Jesus Christ, the King, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, stepped down from his throne and stepped into the body of a human being; he lived a sinless life teaching the multitudes about love; he submitted to the worst death a criminal could face, yet committed no crime; and then he did the unimaginable—he defeated death. Jesus Christ rose again to be victorious over the power of sin and death. Our God’s power reaches beyond the grave and beyond mortality. When our Savior rose that day he unsealed the fate that sin had placed on us and he offered us new life and a new fate. He sent his Holy Spirit to seal our new fate; now, we are forever children of God destined to live in eternity with him (2 Corinthians 1:21-22, Ephesians 1:13-14). That is probably the best thing God did for anyone, and it’s amazing because he offers that life to everyone.

God deserves our worship not only because he gave us life, but also because he is glorious and his character is in all creation. Pride is one of those things that rises up without warning then takes over swiftly and before you know it you have fallen on your face (Proverbs 16:18). The opposite of pride is humility and when you truly consider God’s glory and his awesome works then pride has a hard time surviving in your life. Take the stars for example; scientists estimate that there are 10²³ stars in the universe, that’s 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars. I don’t even know if that number has a name, it’s so big. Our sun is an average size star and still it is 1.3 million times the size of earth; the largest stars can be up to 10 times the size of the sun which would be 13 million times the size of earth. So, those beautiful twinkling lights in the night sky are not only quite numerous (almost beyond measurement), they are also huge! Our God knows each star by name and he created each and every one of those stars. If God cares about the stars don’t you think he cares about the intimate details of our lives? God is so glorious; his creation proves that, and he deserves our humble adoring praise.

We were created to worship God and he’s given us plenty of things to inspire our praise. When life is crazy and overwhelming take the time to really worship God, to offer all that you have: your time, your finances, your body and your very life; give God these things through faith and in worship knowing that his will is being done in your life when you give him everything (Romans 12:1-2). Worship puts things into perspective and gives you clarity for your next step.