Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Wonderful Refuge


UV 2086/10000 Wonderful Refuge
I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge
Psalm 71 v 7


Without great affliction, there cannot be even greater deliverance, healing and victory. The Lord makes each of His children who believe and trust in Him and His word to become a sign and wonder unto many. He makes our lives a testimony of His strength, grace and power. He is not a refuge of desperation but a “strong refuge.” People who watch our lives cannot fully comprehend how things happen. David experienced the mighty delivering and uplifting hand of the Lord even as he worshipped Him as he looked after his father’s sheep. He could slay the bear with his bare hands and wrest his sheep from a lion’s jaws. Even so as we look after our Father’s sheep, feeding them, tending to the weak and wounded, He will give us victory over our threats, fears, dangers, foes and enemies, mortal and spiritual. Thereby, He makes us a wonder even to angels as to men.

David’s next great test and victory was when he accepted the challenge of Goliath as a callow youth. Even from the days of our youth, the Lord enables us to overcome and defeat forces and persons many times more strong or powerful than any of us. The Lord saved David from the deadly jealousy of his royal patron, king Saul. The Lord protects us from friend or patron turned enemies. He makes them the footstool on which he enables us to rise to greatness. We leverage on the strength of our foes and enemies. He elevates us above our contemporaries as he elevated David, a mere shepherd to be king of Israel. The Lord imparted skills, wisdom, understanding and abilities of an extraordinary nature in David. David never put his trust on his own extraordinary abilities and strength but He constantly made the Lord the source of His dependence.

When David was morally defeated by temptation of adultery, he was at his lowest ebb but he cast himself on the mercy of the Lord. He truly repented and obtained grace or he was restored once again to the full favour of the Lord though he could not escape the consequences in the course of his lifetime. Obtaining the mercy and grace of the Lord even when we have failed Him in a terrible way itself makes us a wonder to many. The salvation offered by Jesus plays out in our lives in a variety of ways in real time. The Lord is both the first and last resort of the believer.

Prateep V Philip

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