Refuge part 2
Our life is hid with God in Christ. That is our hiding place. HE is our hiding place. Look at Psalm 32:7, "Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah." So let's track this. God is our hiding place. LOVE is our hiding place. LOVE shall preserve us from trouble. LOVE shall compass us about with songs of deliverance. Love IS our deliverance. Its all about love. Love is our refuge. Love is where we find our true selves. Whenever we feel like we need to rest, or recharge, its not about finding something without. Its not about getting something we haven't got. Its about looking within. Looking in the mirror and seeing who we really are by seeing Jesus. Becuase that is who we really are. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in our flesh. Love in our body. When we need to hide--or, again, rest and recharge--its about what we have. Who we are. Even Jesus would go away by Himself to pray. Frequently. Now, listen, even when Jesus did that He always prioritized people. When He was resting, but someone needed Him, He gave Himself to them. He, in fact, recharged BY ministering to people. Giving what He had is HOW He experienced what He had. Receiving and releasing. Receiving BY releasing. He went to His safe place, but His safe place was helping people. If love is our refuge, that means letting the love that's inside come out is our safe place. Rest doesn't mean inactivity. It means Holy Spirit directed activity. Resting in love means loving people. It doesn't mean throwing people over in their time of need in order to "take care" yourself. Now, let me say this: It is 100% ok to say no to people. You can't do everything. You just can't. And you shouldn't be expected to. You shouldn't let people guilt trip you into doing things that you'd rather not do. If you see a need AND YOU CAN MEET IT, you should. That's called living out of your abundance. If you have TWO coats, and someone needs one, give them a coat. But don't put yourself in a position where you're going to freeze to death. Don't put yourself in a bad position. I believe there is something to be said for ministering out of your hurt. Taking what you've been through and letting God turn your mess into a message is so powerful. When you've been there, done that, and got the t-shirt... you can help someone else through it. A map is nice, but a guide is priceless. I guess what I'm trying to say, in my roundabout way, is that you don't have to physically hide in order to be in your hiding place. You can, in a sense, hide behind love. Let love go before you and know that you are safe behind it. You find your life when you look inside. When you look in love. That's where we can recharge ourselves. In 1 Samuel 30:6 the Bible speaks of David encouraging himself in the Lord his God. Encouraging himself in love. When we need a refuge, when there is trouble, that's when we need to let God's love fill us up. He has already filled us with His love. Our part is filling ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with. Letting it in by letting it out. Finding our life by living our life of love!