I was in the kitchen when I heard the front door unlocking. What I didn’t hear was the jangling of keys or the usual chorus of hellos as my children greeted their father with shrieks at the door. I looked into the living room and saw what I had hoped would never happen: one of my children walking out the front door. The volume that left my body surprised me as I ran after him. The girl twin stared at me shocked, because yelling had not yet become one of my signature behaviors (that fight would come much later with postpartum struggles – a story for another day). My feet moved as quickly as they could toward the boy as I screamed for him to get back into the house.
“What are you doing?! You do not open the door or go outside with mommy and daddy!”
His eyes welled up with tears as I looked down at him – five times his size.
“You scared mommy! You could get hurt! Do you want to get hurt?”
He shook his head and stood in shock while he cried and I yelled.
What I wanted was for him to stay in the house. What I wanted was for him to know that I love him too much to let him do things that were not safe. He did not get that from my behaviour. Volume does not always equate power in humanity. But that is not so with God.
If God raises His voice to speak, it would do us well to sit up and listen. Of course His Word, the scriptures. But also what it says in those scriptures. He used His words to create the world that we exist in. He created our limits with His words. The beaches that are frequented so heavily during these summer months were created by His words. How the psalmist describes His voice makes me feel even smaller than my boy twin when I yelled that day. Instead of a simple fear, I am struck to awe.
Stop for one moment. The sound of His voice melts the earth.
Take a deep breath to take that in. He created the whole earth with His words and yet…His voice melts the earth. What a great power!
We rage and totter. We can’t figure out what we’re doing and we get angry and fight. Not so with our God.He is powerful beyond what our minds can grasp!
God is with us. This earth melting God who can do whatever He pleases chooses to stay near to us. He chooses to make His home with us. He is not only a transcendent God – a God who is far above us. He is the God who is near to His people. How comforting is it to know that the God who created the earth and can crush the whole thing, is with you and helping you and on your side? Don’t let that pass without being in awe.
It’s easy to bypass truths in Scripture that we’ve read many times. But what I’m suggesting is that you slow down and soak it in.
It’s not that He will be with us or that He once was with us. He is with us right now. He isn’t far away. He isn’t indifferent toward us. On the contrary, He has made His home with His church and He uses His power on our behalf. He is our refuge, our strength, our fortress.
He is where we turn in times of trouble. When I scream in sin and fear at my kids, the Lord is my refuge. I can turn to Him and He will continue using His great power to make me more like Christ. His Spirit reminds me that I am Him child. I have not been left alone to figure it out on my own. I have been lovingly drawn closer because of Christ’s sacrifice on my behalf.
If your inclination when you sin is to run, make sure that you’re running toward Christ and not away. You do not save yourself. You do not use your own strength. You are not your own refuge. He is these things because He loves us. He is with us.
After I yelled at the boy twin, I pulled him in close. I held his face and told him that I love him and that I don’t want anything bad to happen to him. I admitted that I am afraid. He cried more and gave me big hugs. It doesn’t matter what he does, I will always love him. How much more does our Father pull us in when we run to Him when we are afraid? When we know that we’ve done something that He does not like. Go back, again, to Christ. Be reminded of who you are.
If you’ve never believed before, turn now. Admit that you cannot keep to His perfect standard and that you need a Savior. He will not turn anyone away who comes to Him. He is mighty and faithful to save all who turn from their sin and believe in Christ’s work on the cross for salvation. Then the living Christ will be with you to help you all the days that you live.
Rooted and Redeemed 