Have you ever been caught in the middle of a downpour when a storm brews out of nowhere? Where the raindrops are pelting you and the rain is unrelenting with heavy winds pushing you like your doing some unknown yoga pose? I think we’ve all been there when the storms hit the area were in. The first thing we do is run to the nearest safe, secure, and strong place. Whether, it’s our car, house, or the closest convenient store, we naturally seek refuge.
They’re are also the storms in life; when someone close to you dies, if you have ever struggled financially, watching your parents divorce, a tough transitioning period, when you feel betrayed from someone in your inner-circle, problems with your spouse, a life threatening incident. We all go through storms. It’s good to know that your not standing alone in the rain… It’s even better when you find Jesus standing right next to you holding your hand.
I’ve learned that this world has millions of ways to cope in the midst of heavy storms. Seriously, its a craft the enemy has been honing and expanding for thousands and thousands of years. satan provides false comfort and an illusion of refuge… in every season and especially the storms. Drugs, alcohol, pornography, how many people we can sleep with, comfort food, slander, gossip, bragging rights, making ourselves look important. Even the approval of certain people, like that one person we have always wanted them to notice us, or how many likes we can get on Facebook.
Before Christ, I never really had a father figure in my life or a healthy relationship with a woman. I spent years of drinking my emotions deep down and sleeping with women to find fulfillment in my insecurities. God has delivered me from amazing and incredible things. Even now as I write this I am laughing! Anyone who knows me, knows I laugh a lot and it’s a gift from God. The enemy wont stop trying to present a refuge with false comfort. Even to this day when I feel stressed there is a root issue in my heart to find refuge in false comfort in approval from women within simple conversations.
I have been in a challenging yet very rewarding, transitioning period of my life. The Lord is taking me through this process of this storm I am in and I see Him here with me. The other day it was literally raining outside with dark heavy storm clouds…then I looked closer and saw a rainbow in the midst of it. It’s His promise not to let me drown and there is such beauty in this storm. I am opening deeper in my heart and allowing Him to become my best friend within this journey of life. I am learning more how He is the best refuge and I can trust Him with everything because He is my best friend, who is more on my side than I realize. He is the place I am running too for true refuge in the storms and letting the home of friendship with God be my resting place.
What is something you run too? Sometimes it takes some real time to search inside to see the false comfort and refuge’s we seek in the midst of storms. That place is made only for Jesus within our hearts, everything else will not stand. Coming from someone who has tried most of what the world has to offer, I know that only a relationship with Jesus truly satisfies. That He is the best refuge and safest place.
Some people have thought, that’s guy didn’t grow up in the church and is lucky. I am still seeing repercussions from years of false comforts and refuge’s, it goes deep within the heart. I want the testimony of my children following Jesus and not having to go through the years of pain, hurt, and destruction as I did. So, wherever you are I hope you can see the beauty within the storms and find true refuge in Jesus, allowing Him to become your main source of comfort and approval. He is holding out His hand wanting to be your best friend and trust Him…Will you let Him?
