But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You. Psalm 5:11


I am thankful I can take refuge in my Lord and sing His praises! What I need to remember is that my definition of refuge and God’s definition of refuge are not always the same.

I want refuge to be a tightly enclosed space that shelters me from…well…everything. I don’t want to be rained on at all…not even a drop. Basically, I want the troubles and problems to just go away.

 But, I don’t think that’s the kind of refuge and shelter God is talking about.  He will protect, He will shelter me, He will provide a refuge, but He rarely simply removes the situation I am in. That’s because He knows I won’t learn anything, I won’t ever be more mature if all my troubles just vanish. Easy and comfortable never produce maturity, they only produce stale and wimpy.

God’s protection is in the midst of the rain and He wants me to praise Him in the rain. Usually I wait until after the rain is done and every puddle is dried up. While it’s raining, I’m pretty sulky. In fact, I can be down right cantankerous!

When I can sing His praises while it’s raining, then I’ll know that I’m developing some good ole’ Christian moxy!