Sheltered From The Storm

The LORD is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

Psalm 9:9

The Lord shelters the oppressed—the broken, crushed, disappointed, disillusioned, grieving. Life can be brutal, but God is our safe place. He stands between us and life, absorbing its blows on our behalf.

What’s the first thing you do when you know a tornado is headed your way? Seek shelter! You know the storm is too big for you. You can’t withstand its power. So you find a refuge and let the storm pass over you.

The news introduces us to people who have weathered killer storms. Observing the littered landscape, we are left to imagine the force that created such devastation. Yet people are still standing. The storm that leveled everything in sight somehow missed them. How did they escape the storm’s power? They found a shelter. They found a place strong enough to withstand the force of the storm.

This is what God is saying to you right now: I’m stronger than your storm.

At some point in the depths of my grief at the loss of my husband, I asked the Lord, “If you bear my burdens, then why do I have to feel this pain?” I thought about an experience when my son Kennedy asked me to put my hands against his punching bag and hold it steady for him to punch. Big, strong Kennedy put all his power into the punch. On my side, it stung my hands just enough for me to say, “Ouch!” But it was nothing like the pain I would have experienced had the punch landed on me. I’d have been knocked out!

The Lord seemed to say to me: I stand between you and any blows headed your way. If the pain you feel hurts, just imagine the pain if I had not absorbed the blow for you. God does not promise life without pain. He promises to be a shelter from life’s knockout punches.

Lord, I give myself to you in total trust. I believe that you are stronger than my storm.

He hideth our unrighteousness with His righteousness, He covereth our disobedience with his obedience, He shadoweth our death with His death, that the wrath of God cannot find us.

Henry Smith(ca. 1560–1591?), English Puritan preacher