Our Refuge

“O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble”
(Jeremiah 16:19, ESV)

We have many battles in life. Some come at the hands of other people. Some through illness. Some through natural disasters and calamity. These are sometimes spiritual attacks. Some are clearly from spiritual forces of evil. Yet all these battles weigh on our total person, body, soul, and spirit.

Recently I went through battle with metastatic bladder cancer. The war went on for a year and a half. Through the time of the battle, I obviously struggled physically with surgeries, treatments, and the side-effects of the treatments. Yet there was an emotional and spiritual side to this also. There was a battle to not let the potential negative outcome of the disease take me into a season of hopelessness, one that might cause me to give up. This also worked to take me into a spiritual battle of faith. Was I going to trust the Lord in His sovereignty or not?

I now understand to a greater degree the thing that Jeremiah affirmed. This is because I experienced it firsthand. The Lord is, “my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble.” The Lord is the one who gave me strength through this time as I continued to serve Him in the ministry to which He gave me. Yes, I experienced physical weakness during recovery from the surgeries and treatments. Yet I always had sufficient energy and staminal to fulfill my pastoral duties.

The word is true. The Lord is our stronghold and in Him we take refuge when under attack. I think about this today as my oncologist declared me cancer free and in remission. When he gave me that word he stated, “It could never comeback, then again it might comeback someday.” Knowing this, he put me on active surveillance. That meant quarterly diagnostic tests including a cystoscopy and a CT-Scan. With this quarterly cycle, there can be a constant lingering in the back of one’s mind. What will they find with the next quarterly tests. It is here where I affirm that the Lord is “my strength and my stronghold, my refuge.” He has never stopped being my stronghold, my place of refuge.

All of us will at some point enter a day of trouble. Jeremiah had his as the Lord called him to be a prophet with a message the people did not want to hear. They had threatened him and he recognized that the Lord was his stronghold. I had my time of trouble and recognized the same.

Yet whether we are in the time of crisis or in the time of bliss, the fact remains. The Lord never ceases to be the believer’s strength and stronghold, an ever-present refuge in life. We therefore can rest comfortably in Him for the physical, emotional, and spiritual strength we need to fulfill our mission for Him.