We might be familiar with the phrase “he’s my rock”, which means I know I can lean on him, and build my life on him. Can any of us really imagine what it would be like to own a fortress? But we can all relate to the idea of having, and needing, a place of safety.
It might be home for you. After a long day where anything can happen, you get home, where everything is familiar, and you can have some peace and quiet. Or maybe, watching a scary film, or hearing a noise, you throw the duvet over your head.
Whatever a safe place looks like for you, we all know we need at least one, because sometimes life can be hard. But what if you could carry a safe place with you, wherever you go, so you’d have it whenever you needed it? That’d be pretty cool eh? Imagine driving around in a tank – safe, and fairly portable? Or maybe some clever James Bond kind of gadget that you could carry in your pocket, to create a pod, or force field to protect you..
What does this verse from Psalm 18 say is a place of safety? Not a place, or a thing, but the Lord himself, he is the place of safety. And the wonderful thing about God is that he actually is everywhere. Meaning that we do have a place of safety everywhere we go.
We don’t always realise God is here. In the Bible (Genesis ch28) when Jacob realises that God is with him he says: “This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
God is everywhere, which is pretty comforting, but what is even cooler is that if we have asked Jesus into our hearts then we become the gate of heaven, we are the house of God, because he lives in us.
It’s no longer about running and hiding, because you carry the Almighty with you, within you, and he’s your rock.
I recommend it.
Elizabeth Ford
Activities at the June Squeeze Breakfast reinforced the theme from Psalm 18. An enormous fortress on a rock for those who enjoy colouring, large and small shields to decorate with your own coat of arms, and the final game. In pairs and carrying the shields, at the throw of a giant dice, we moved across the Hall on the back of scrap wall-paper divided into 36 squares.
Obstacles and rewards helped and hindered our progress to the cardboard tower which only represented safety – hence the cries of “Don’t move the chairs, they are holding up the walls.” Great fun!
Next Squeeze Breakfast: Sunday 7th July from 10am, Village Hall
