God is an Ever Present Help in Trouble

 

Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” (NIV)

I admire and respect people who can maintain their composure and critical thinking in life’s most chaotic moments. Our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, was always able to maintain his calm, self-control, and spiritual mind regardless of what was happening around him. Jesus Christ could be at peace in a storm at sea in the back of a boat, or amid those that hated him and desired to murder him. Jesus’ mind, personality, and communication were extraordinarily supportive of those who followed him. Jesus never deserted people, talked down to them, or misguided them during the most stressful of times. I like what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:23 “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”

Jesus knew the secret of Psalm 46:10 to “Be still and know that I am God.” As Christians, if we are to be pillars of stability in life’s storms, then we must understand and use God as our ever present help in trouble. What Satan wants to engineer in your life are events that disturb your happiness and cause you to fear the world and to doubt God. When we move away from God’s path, it is always because we either fear the world, or doubt God, and all too often we are guilty of both.  So notice what the answer is to not losing our heads in those incredible moments of disruption and discontinuity. The Psalmist in our devotional text says we must see God as our:

1. Refuge. We all have a secret place of quite repose near to the heart of God, no matter what debris of the world is swirling around us. Christians endured Hitler’s death camps because of their secret place with their God.
2. Strength. We have no strength in and of ourselves to defeat Satan and those enemies who seek to take us low and cut us off from any position of influence in behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul said: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).
3. Ever present help in trouble. Trouble is not far from anyone of us, so we know that without our routine response of habit to call on the name of the Lord, we will falter, fail, and fall.

A Christian should always be able to maintain their composure, discipline, and character in the most uneven of times if we seek God, depend upon God, and have absolute confidence in God’s ability to deliver us through all circumstances. It is easy to see those who are close to God in times when the earth gives way or the mountains fall into the sea. They are the people of God who maintain a peaceful composure, and a confident spirit, and stand tall, willing to help others find God’s ever present help in trouble.

THANK YOU, FATHER, FOR HELPING US, NO MATTER WHAT THE DIFFICULTY. I KNOW YOUR PRESENCE WILL HELP ME HELP OTHERS BECAUSE YOU ARE A FORTRESS THAT WILL NOT FAIL.

God is an Ever Present Help in Trouble     Mike White @ Summit church of Christ