Original Entry: November 25, 2007
10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
On my New Mexico deer hunt, I had absolutely no fear about the weather or whether my tent would hold up under extreme weather. My $49.99 bivouac tent held up under the stress of two Oregon wilderness snowstorms and my even cheaper twenty-degree sleeping bag proved to be more than adequate as well. This gave me great confidence at 7400 feet elevation in the Carson National Forest of New Mexico.
Confidence is everything when packing into an unknown or previously un-experienced wilderness. Am I confident in my physical conditioning? Am I confident in my gear, my partner, my shooting skills, my ability to find water, make fire, and navigate to chosen destinations?
Confidence is everything. Confidence creates and sustains courage.
Where do you find your confidence? What confident-building, faith-increasing concept, belief or faith do you run to? What is your default setting?
Far too many men spend their lives running in futility to shelters that blow down, waste away or collapse when the storms of life come. Like the children’s tale of the Three Little Pigs they built their lives in houses of straw or sticks. Disguised as a 4,000 square foot home on the top of the hill, it will topple under duress. You don’t want to have a weak shelter in a snow storm and you do not want to have a weak life in the midst of trials and sufferings. Trust in Jesus and commit to only run towards him, and never people, places or things that will cave in under the pressures of the real world.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (Matthew 7: 24-27).
I don’t know about you but I hate it when I run out of God’s shelter into some weak alternative. How long will I survive outside of God’s shelter before life begins to cave in around me? How long will I run after temporal, finite, and eternally insignificant objects such as wealth, popularity and temporal prestige?
Proverbs 18:10 in the New American Standard says “The righteous runs into it.” This expresses a godly and passionate pursuit by the man of God. It speaks about the man who forgets all other things in order to focus on the one prize and shelter that will hold up under pressure, protect him in the storm, and be his refuge when all else fails.
What is your shelter made out of?
