Where Do I Turn?
Where Do You Turn?
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” – Psalm 46:1
Where do you turn when things start to fall apart around you?
I remember a cartoon I saw a while back. It was a single frame cartoon. In it, a pastor was kneeling in a position of prayer and his secretary is walking in the door and says,
“Oh, good, you aren’t doing anything important…”
Unfortunately, that’s our view on prayer all too often. It’s either a last resort or that thing we “do” before we go really do something to help.
What if prayer was the first thing we did and the thing we considered most important?
Luther has a somewhat famous quote,
“I have so much to do today that I’m going to need to spend three hours in prayer in order to be able to get it all done.”
I wish I could say I’ve always had the same response, but I have all too often gotten straight to the things I “needed” to do and let it push the prayer aside. I think I handled those days wrongly.
God is our very present help!
He really is. This is one of my favorite passages, not just because it’s a great encouragement, but because it’s a wake-up call. It reminds me that I’m not the first place I need to turn when things start going south. Neither are the various helps of the world.
It’s not that these things aren’t good or helpful, but we need to start where the real source of the help comes from…God.
He may help us directly. He may help us through another person. He may help us through an insight we have.
He is our help, though. He is our refuge when things go bad. We can come to Him…rest in Him…trust in Him.
Let’s start our day with God. Let’s pray. Let’s spend time reading His Word.
Whether things are good or bad, let’s go to Him. When things do go bad or when things get a bit hectic, rather than running to other sources or even ourselves, let’s start by turning to God, our help, our refuge, our very present help in trouble.
Heavenly Father,
Far too often I have turned to other sources first before I came to You. Help me to come to You first. Help me to come to You even when things are good. Thank You for always being there for me.
Amen!!
In Christ’s Service,
Pastor Kurt
