One-a-Day...for the Heart: Home Sweet Home
Lord, through all the generations You have been our home! Moses declared that in Psalm 90:1 (NLT). In verse 2, he reminds us (Message translation), long before the mountains were born, long before You brought earth itself to birth, from "once upon a time" to "kingdom come" — You are God.
Dorothy said it well in The Wizard of Oz: “There’s no place like home!” Her fictitious home was Kansas, but our true home is in the Lord. He affords us peace, comfort, safety, shelter from the enemies of our souls, rest, and provision. When we surrender our lives to Christ and determine to live for Him, our Father God extends His covering over and around all areas of our lives. Our protection comes as the blood of Jesus washes our sin away and covers us, making us acceptable and fully clean before the Father. Our marvelous home of safety and security is further described in Psalm 91:1-2 (NLT) Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust him.
Moses, Abraham, Elijah, Joshua, Daniel, David, and the saints who walked with Father God before Jesus was born also enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing their home was in God because, as Genesis 15:6 (NLT) says, And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. It has always been the right thing, the safest thing, the best thing to choose to obey and follow Almighty God, whether before Christ appeared on the earth or after.
The Passion Translation states, Lord, you have always been our eternal home, our hiding place from generation to generation (Psalm 90:1). If I have to, I can readily find some good hiding places in my home in Pennsylvania. As a child, I knew secret places to escape to and hide if my brother was chasing me. Colossians 3:3-4 (NLT) tells us, for you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Our eternal place in Christ is the safest place we can hide from all the trouble of the world.
What trouble? Pain, sickness, hatred, confusion, oppression, violence—every evil foe our enemy, the devil puts in our paths. What happens when we hide in the Lord, and actually live under His covering? When you abide under the shadow of Shaddai [Almighty God], you are hidden in the strength of God Most High. He’s the hope that holds me and the stronghold to shelter me, the only God for me, and my great confidence, the psalmist tells us in Psalm 91:1-2 (TPT).
After a long day of work or school, it’s reassuring to come home, lock the door behind us, kick off our shoes, and relax. Once we go outside our earthly homes, the elements of wind, rain, on or snow can disrupt the peace we had inside our home. Animals—even ferocious ones, depending where we live—can attack and harm us. Evil can creep in on us from the most sinister places, just because we left the safety of our homes.
Run for cover and stay hidden! Get back into your hiding place in Christ! Keep yourself in the Word and prayer and fellowship with God’s people. That will lock the door to your home in God. For You are my hiding place; You protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory (Psalm 32:7 NLT).
Truly, there’s no place like home!
© 2021, Chris Werre