“He who dwells in the secret place of the most high, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust. “Psalm 91:1–2.

My word for this year of 2023 has been abide.

OpentheBible.org says, “To, ‘abide’ is a verb. It is active. Abiding in Christ is not a feeling or a belief, but something we do. It means to ‘remain’ or ‘stay’ and entails far more than the idea of continued belief in the Savior.”

To remain or stay, which is the definition of abide, under the shadow of the Almighty. This is the picture I get in my mind. Think about laying under an enormous tree on a hot summer day. The tree provides the shade and needed relief and rest for you to have shade from the scorching hot sun.

Isn’t this what God wants to be for us. However, do we allow it? How often do we take refuge and abide in God? How often do we let Him be our fortress? A fortress is a huge castle made of stone and brick and it is solid. Yet on many days instead of abiding, and letting God be my fortress, I hang out in the mud and dwell in a shack.

Maybe you don’t do this, but I tend to read the Bible and think, “Oh yeah, He did that back then, but is He really going still do it today?” Like God somehow stops being God at some point in history… Kind of an insane thought.

But our world has created so much fear because we have an enormous amount of information available to us. While technology and the Internet can be great things, our minds were not created to take in everything that’s shared with us.

It can be overwhelming and scary, and feel dangerous to live in our world today where there is evil and scammers. I encountered one just this week who tried to make me pay for something I didn’t need to pay for. They were advertising their number as a Microsoft number and they were not actually Microsoft.

However, God still dwells and is in charge of all. He is there for us to abide in Him, be our shadow, and He is, and can be our refuge and our fortress when we trust in Him. He wants and longs to be this for us. However, He is such a kind and loving God He’s not going to force this on us

Today I’m going come back and abide and dwell in this secret place of the Most High. I invite you to do the same.

Father God,
This world feels crazy and out of control. As we come to the end of another year, help me each day to remember to dwell with You always. To abide in Your shadow, and allow You to be my refuge and fortress, and to trust in You. Just as the author of Psalm 91 wrote, You promise to deliver us from the snare of the fowler, and keep us under Your wings. I want to take refuge. You promise if we call upon You, You will answer and will be with us in trouble and deliver us. All that You may be glorified. I make this my prayer today and every day.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

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