CHRIST IS MY CASTLE
December 24, 2018 “The kinglet on the suet. The rays of sunshine flooding the bedroom
just so. The pine straw covering the
ground outside like a blanket. I reminisce
of days gone by when I sat on this very front porch penning historical fiction
as a teenager, creating lesson plans for preschoolers, and telling a skinny,
dark-haired college boy that I loved him.
It is pretty incredible returning to a home where you spent so much of
your youth. I never knew that feeling
when I was little – we moved often during my younger years. But this was where Dad had his final tour of
duty for the Navy. This was the home
where he retired. And this is where I
return now for the holidays. A place of
familiarity. A haven. A refuge.”
Our family traveled over 32,000 miles in 2018. I have learned to enjoy certain aspects of
being on the road, but for me, a truly fabulous day is one in which we never
leave the parameters of our own house and yard.
By nature, a woman’s home is her refuge.
With her family and the familiar about her, she feels SAFE. Certainly the schedule can go awry, the
laundry can pile up, and the toilet can overflow, but this is HOME. She is the wife, the mother, the queen, and
this place is her domain. Deputation,
however, takes much of that kingdom away.
The missionary wife finds herself without the security of personal
decisions regarding meals, schedules, or sleeping arrangements. She has no choice but to hand a million
unknowns to her Savior on a daily basis.
This past fall, a pastor’s wife took several of us
missionary wives aside and prayed for us, “as they do that which is not natural
– leaving their homes behind.” It struck
me, as she prayed, that this is why life on the road is so difficult at times. Quite simply, it isn’t NORMAL. As much as I sometimes long for my own routine;
for my own stove, and bed, and bathtub; to be surrounded by the familiar four
walls of my own “castle”; there are weeks and even months when God is the only
fortress in sight. And the truth of the
matter is, HE is all I need. CHRIST is
my castle in my changing world. And HE
remains ever the same.
Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus
Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.”
Deuteronomy 33:27 “The
eternal God is thy refuge . . .”
My refuge; my “strong
habitation, whereunto I may continually resort” (Ps. 71:3) When my day is
hard and my circumstances challenging - over, and over, and over again - I can
run to Him and be safe (Prov. 18:10). As
the hymn by William O. Cushing states so perfectly, “Hiding in Thee, hiding in Thee, Thou blest ‘Rock of Ages,’ I’m hiding
in Thee.”
David understood a transient lifestyle. The vast majority of his early adulthood, he
was running from King Saul; living in caves; living with the enemy . . .
In Psalm 142:5, David wrote: “I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion
in the land of the living.”
As we enter another year of deputation, this is my personal
prayer – that I allow God to be my REFUGE like never before. “You are my castle, Dear Jesus. YOU are my home and my security.”
Perhaps you pull into the same driveway every day; you check
your mail at the same mailbox; you use the same key in the same front door
every time. You do not feel you need God
as your HOME, in quite the same way as a traveling missionary wife. But we all struggle with the human need to
feel SECURE. It may be that there are
new health issues on your horizon, or the “sands are shifting” at your
workplace. You may find yourself facing
many unknowns in the year ahead.
The Bible tells us that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore
will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea . . .” (Ps. 46:1-2)
Though the “earth be
removed” – though my world be shattered - and though the “mountains” – all my personal strongholds
– “be carried” away, God is always
with me – “a very present help in trouble.”
Psalm 91:1-2 “He that
dwelleth 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 will I trust.”
When every other fortress seems fallen, He is there for you,
Dear Sister! And He is there for me . .
. Do you need to cling to God as YOUR refuge in 2019?? May Christ be your
castle – your stronghold against every changing wind and every foe. And in every storm that comes, may you find
Him to be the Rock that is ever so much higher than yourself (Ps. 61:2-3).
“Oh, safe to the Rock
that is higher than I, My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly . . . In
the tempests of life, on its wide, heaving sea, Thou blest Rock of Ages, I’m
hiding in Thee.”
