Get Into The Inner Shelter of God

The world is quickly becoming a heated place. We are battling things more often on a daily basis then we ever had to before. Anger is taking the place of peace, sexual immorality is on the rise especially in our youth, venting our rage at others seems to be the norm over self-control. The things that were once considered evil is now considered good. Yet the Bible spoke about this in Isaiah 5:20:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

I find that even amongst Christians they are accepting things that at one time would not have been tolerated. Something as small as the choice of reading material or what is viewed on tv or at the movies is considered ok when in years past it would have been question. I was reading a post where a well knowing Christian actor had asked what the people thought about a certain article. The article was from a Christian woman who said she allows her child to read a popular series of books that although has the children in the story doing sorcery, it was considered good because it’s about good verses evil and how the children are like family with each other.

I have to question this especially when I compare it to the Word of God in Deuteronomy 18:9-11 and because we have to be careful as we can compromise ourselves into eternal separation from God.:

⁹ When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. ¹⁰ Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, ¹¹ or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. ¹² Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. ¹³ You must be blameless before the Lord your God.

Also in Galatians 5:19-21:

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Why do we compromise where God does not? Why do we see something as good when God sees it as detestable? We think there is no harm because it has a measure of good in it but we can’t forget, Satan will come as an angel of light as we see in 2 Corinthians 11:14:

“And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”

If he can masquerade himself as an angel of light, he can masquerade evil to look as good. What is masquerade? A mask or disguise, false character, a cover. He is good at covering up evil to make it look good. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:8 that we must be alert and of sober mind:

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Having a sober mind means you have self-control. In a time when we are seeing an uprise in emotions, an uprise in evil and an uprise in nature, how do we continue to live as Christians, in recovery and not in fear and worry? By seeking the shelter of the Lord. It’s very easy to get caught up in everything that is going on around us and get sucked into worldly ways and concerns. Yet God gives us directions on how to live amongst all of these things and not get caught up into it. It requires us staying close to Him through prayer and reading His Word. It requires us not compromising for the sake of enjoyment. It requires us comparing what we see, hear and do with the Word of God.

We have to be careful though. If we see these things happening, we must not wait until the last minute when the storm hits. Many people do this in areas where they are used to hurricanes and tornadoes. When I worked in disaster services, there were always those people who either waited until the last minute to get to safety or said “I survived the last storm, I’ll ride out this one” and would even get minimal supplies having great confidence they would be just fine. Sometimes they were and sometimes they weren’t. When the warning is given that a storm is coming, the wise thing to do is not to assume all will go well because it did the last time. No two storms are the same. There have been tornadoes where it took the house across the street but the other was left standing. We can’t be that confident in thinking nothing will ever happen to us. So, spiritually when the Lord is sending out a message that a huge storm is coming (spiritual and physical) and to take shelter, we must not wait until the last minute to do so. He wants us to get closer to Him and take shelter in Him, reading and applying His Word even more and trusting that He will cover us during the storm. And if an even worse storm is approaching, He will move us even further into His inner shelter which is yet closer to Him. It just requires us listening to Him, doing what He tells us to do and to be alert to our surroundings and what is going on. Even If we wait until the last minute to seek His shelter and end up making it there, we still may be in a place emotionally where the cares of the world may still reach us if we aren’t careful and harm us or worse because we haven’t taken the time to build up our spiritual reserves through His Word, through prayer and have faith that He will see us through it.

We live in an uncertain world. We are seeing things unfold before our eyes that the Bible has warned us about. This means we have a choice to make. Do we wait until the last minute to seek Christ’s salvation and His shelter or do we prepare ourselves as five of the ten virgins did by having extra oil on hand in case our lamps go out. Remember, the lamp represent the light within us. It can grow dim while we wait for the Lord due to the ways of the world. But having that extra oil (reserves) can boost our light and help us to see in the darkness.

If you haven’t accepted the free gift of salvation from Jesus, just pray and confess your sins to Him, tell Him you accept Him as your Lord and Savior, you believe He is the Son of God and died on the cross for you. Then repent and turn from your sinful ways. This just means you stop doing the wrong things you did in the past. You change your ways and renew your mind. If your light has dimmed within you due to the difficulties of life and the ways of the world, you still have time to obtain that extra oil. You do it by getting closer to Jesus, reading the Word of God and applying it in your daily life.

Don’t wait until a disaster is almost upon you before you think about preparing yourself. Do it before it hits when you hear and see the warning signs. It will save your life.