Outside the stronghold

When the world around you is collapsing, your inner world may also feel like it’s coming apart. Your heart cries out, “God, have You failed me? Where are You when I cry out for Your help?”

I’ve read accounts of Arctic explorers stranded on an ice floe. They would helplessly watch as the ice underfoot gradually melted. As they began to sink, they could only hope for rescue.

Life can sometimes make you feel like you’re sinking. You feel insecure because of your relationships collapsing, your health failing, or your resources dwindling.

Don’t despair or give up – here’s why:

When the prophet Nahum was proclaiming what would soon happen to Nineveh, he wrote, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him” (Nahum 1:7 NKJV).

Nahum says, “God is good!” Do you believe that? If you don’t, you are much like a stranded person on an ice floe who refuses help from a rescue boat, thinking, “Perhaps they are trying to trick me.”

Failing to recognize that we live in a broken world, some blame God for not preventing the tragedies that rock their world, especially their personal lives. This world is not heaven; it’s a battleground. Don’t blame God for the evil that some perpetrate. Instead, thank Him for His faithfulness and goodness.

Nahum tells us that a step of faith is involved. Faith has two elements: belief and trust. You need to stand on what you believe. Faith anchors our soul to the One who never fails, our Rock, our Fortress and our Redeemer.