Be my rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and fortress. (Psalm 71:3)
I love how David prays this prayer honestly before God. In one breath, he prays, “Be my rock and refuge,” while in another, he prays, “You are my rock and refuge.”
In the book of Mark, we see the closest followers of Jesus in a sticky situation. Waves are crashing into their boat, and one of the apostles looks at Jesus (who was asleep) and says, “Teacher! Don’t you care that we are perishing?” Isn’t it funny that in the lowest times of our lives, the nature of God toward us is the first thing we begin to doubt? We’ve all prayed, “God, don’t you care?!”
Those are the times we feel like a whipped pup–beat up, overworked, overlooked, and inadequate. We begin to question ourselves, the people closest to us, and, the least-admitted, God.
My senior pastor, John Nuzzo, has said in the past, your dream will die three or four times before it begins to come to pass. It’s when that dream is dying that we need to begin to change our tone, just like David. We pray, “God, where are you?” But we should begin to pray, “God, you are here. You’re going to get me to the other side of this difficulty.”
What would have happened if the apostles abandoned ship, taking the issue at hand into their own hands? They may have gotten out of the boat that was looking like it was going to sink, but could they swim through the currents? In the same way, running from our issues never solves our issues, it just creates more issues.
One of my mentors spoke into my life several years ago, “Don’t abandon ship. Know your compass. Keep going.” It was so simple, but it was what I needed to hear. That same encouragement, I want to pass to you. “Don’t abandon ship. Know your compass. Keep going.” God’s destined you for great things. He promises to restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you in the most difficult circumstances in life (1Peter 5:7-11) , and He isn’t fibbing.
