Bible League: Living His Word God is our refuge and strength,a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Where can you go when the familiar and friendly life you had is suddenly broken up by forces beyond your control? Where can you go when that which you relied upon to be there when you needed it suddenly disappears? Maybe the one idea or product that kept your business afloat is stolen by competitors. Maybe the star witness that could exonerate you in a court of law suddenly gets cold feet. Maybe the key person you depended on to run your campaign deserts you for a job with the opposition. Where can you go? Where do you go when it seems like the very earth has given way? When it seems like a landslide has carried the very mountains into the heart of the sea? That which seemed stable, and even eternal, breaks apart and crumbles to pieces. You begin to question your talents and abilities. You even begin to question the call of God on your life. Maybe you got it wrong. Maybe it was all a big mistake. After all, if God were in it, He wouldn't have allowed all this to happen, would He? Then it gets worse. It seems like the sea can't stop churning and convulsing. It seems like one chain of mountains wasn't enough for it and it wants to swallow even more of them. The one thing you needed was taken away and now everything else is being threatened. Real fear begins to rise up in your soul. Anxiety like you've never had before gets a grip on you. You try to keep it under control, but this is beyond anything you have ever experienced. It's the challenge of your life. But then it happens. Maybe it was the result of your mother's instruction, or maybe it was the result of the Sunday school you attended, or maybe it was your habit of Bible reading in the early morning, but, whatever it was, it was the reason our verse for today came to mind. Where can you go? What will take away the fear and anxiety? You can go to God, for "He is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJeremiah 25, 26 Jeremiah 25 -- Jeremiah Prophesies Seventy Years of Captivity and Judgment on Babylon NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jeremiah 26 -- Jeremiah Threatened and Spared NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading 2 Timothy 3 2 Timothy 3 -- Godless Times Will Come NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear.Insight When we speak fearlessly for Christ, or live faithfully for him during difficult situations, we encourage others to do the same. Challenge Be an encouragement by the way that you live. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Luke 24:16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.The disciples ought to have known Jesus, they had heard his voice so often, and gazed upon that marred face so frequently, that it is wonderful they did not discover him. Yet is it not so with you also? You have not seen Jesus lately. You have been to his table, and you have not met him there. You are in a dark trouble this evening, and though he plainly says, "It is I, be not afraid," yet you cannot discern him. Alas! our eyes are holden. We know his voice; we have looked into his face; we have leaned our head upon his bosom, and yet, though Christ is very near us, we are saying "O that I knew where I might find him!" We should know Jesus, for we have the Scriptures to reflect his image, and yet how possible it is for us to open that precious book and have no glimpse of the Wellbeloved! Dear child of God, are you in that state? Jesus feedeth among the lilies of the word, and you walk among those lilies, and yet you behold him not. He is accustomed to walk through the glades of Scripture, and to commune with his people, as the Father did with Adam in the cool of the day, and yet you are in the garden of Scripture, but cannot see him, though he is always there. And why do we not see him? It must be ascribed in our case, as in the disciples', to unbelief. They evidently did not expect to see Jesus, and therefore they did not know him. To a great extent in spiritual things we get what we expect of the Lord. Faith alone can bring us to see Jesus. Make it your prayer, "Lord, open thou mine eyes, that I may see my Saviour present with me." It is a blessed thing to want to see him; but oh! it is better far to gaze upon him. To those who seek him he is kind; but to those who find him, beyond expression is he dear! Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Samuel 30:6 Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.John 6:68 Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. 2 Timothy 1:12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. Psalm 18:6,18,19 In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears. • They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the LORD was my stay. • He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me. Psalm 34:1-4,8 A Psalm of David when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed. I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. • My soul will make its boast in the LORD; The humble will hear it and rejoice. • O magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together. • I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears. • O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. 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