Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
You know, storms can be really scary, especially severe storms. When I was a kid, though, I thought it would be the coolest thing. Here are the tornado sirens going off. The wind is blowing pretty strong. I thought it would be the greatest opportunity to go get a bedsheet and tie it around my neck and climb this little antenna tower to see my cape flapping in the wind as I hung on for dear life.
And I still remember one of my sisters opening the door and yelling, "David, get in here!" All my family was gathered in the basement because there was a tornado warning coming. Didn't take it overly seriously. I thought it was fantastic and fun.
The Importance of Proximity
But you have these times where you see either on the news of these severe storms that come into the area, and sometimes wiping out people's homes, but you all of a sudden see the door of the shelter fly open, and you see a family who has been huddled in safety, climbing out, even though they see they lost everything. The shelter protected them from the severe storm.
That's where we find our Verse of the Day today. It's in Psalm chapter 5 and verse 11. It says, But let all who take refuge in you, in God, rejoice. Let them sing joyful praises forever. Spread your protection over them, that all who love your name may be filled with joy. Now you consider where you take refuge in the Lord, especially during times of trouble. And that's what causes us to rejoice because we have God to turn to.
But the question is, imagine if you had a severe storm coming your way. Obviously, I didn't take it seriously when I was younger, but I take it very seriously now. Imagine a severe storm is coming and someone who is a couple miles away says, "Hey, we have a storm shelter for you to come be protected from the storm."
I can't imagine we would find that very useful, because here a severe storm is barreling down on you. And what is the most important thing in that moment for a refuge or protection? Proximity. It's about being as close as possible to this refuge. This place of protection, this shelter.
Staying Close to Our Refuge
You know, it's the same thing with God. Many times we look at God as all of a sudden we're going through a storm of life, and then we care about proximity of the Lord in our life. The question I would love to ask you is if we care so much about proximity of protection and a refuge and a place of shelter for us and our family, or our loved ones, or our neighbors in a severe storm that is all around us physically. Imagine what it would look like if we took time and every day, whether we're going through a storm or not in life to ensure we are constantly staying in close proximity to our refuge, our Lord. What would that look like?
Because it's in those times, the day in and day out of making sure we're staying in close proximity, that all of a sudden the storms of life come and barrel down on us and we wonder, "Lord, where are You?" And goodness, He wants you to be by His side even in those times, even in the good times, and the bad times.
And the more we develop that relationship where we look at Him as not just a refuge in the time of the storm, but actually we start falling in love with the proximity of His presence every single day. And guess what? We start building the trust we have for Him, that when those storms come, we know His voice and we know His presence is near.
I would encourage you today, take some time and look at where you're at in your relationship with God. If you're going through a storm and you haven't built up that proximity, being close to the Lord, guess what? He still wants you to reach out to Him. He still wants you to call to Him. And when we do, when we build that relationship, that's when we can truly say, like the psalmist, all who love Your name because we fall in love with Him are filled with joy because of their proximity of His presence.
Take some time today to spend time in His presence, and every day thereafter.
