Prayer...A safe place

The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe.  Pr. 18v10

I think the picture that really strikes me about God being my refuge is in this verse - He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. Psalm 91:4 Have you ever seen geese with their goslings?? This verse really has meaning for me because we had a lot of geese when I was growing up! (They always would chase me and pinch my bum!) The awesome thing about geese/goslings is that when the mother goose lifts its wing (for whatever reason!) the goslings immediately run to the mother and take cover under that wing. No noise from the mother…just a simple lift of the wing. Also what struck me is that in order for the goslings to reply so instantly to that gesture, they would be watching the goose the entire time, no matter what they are doing! This struck me, very hard! Because I think firstly, like the goslings, running to God in prayer needs to be an instant reaction to anything in our lives, but even more importantly, if we are not focussed on God, we will not know where to run to! Or when to run to Him for that matter!! Its so true…the times when I forget to pray are the times when I have lost focus on God! Its no surprise to me that this picture of finding refuge under His wings was used!

The other thing about a goose is that when its goslings are under its wing, there is no moving it! It suddenly becomes the most stubborn ‘will not be moved’ creature in the world….And in the same way God never leaves us! And even more excitingly…Mother goose constantly follows its goslings, always has them in the line of sight! (rather like a good shepherd!) and its also like God. He chases us, even when we forget to take our refuge in Him, he still watches over us…He is still there! I think this picture is ingrained in my head! If I had got round to drawing any picture of prayer, it would have been a gosling under a wing!

And as for this verse - The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10 – I think the meaning would have been a lot more valuable to the people of that time, they had the picture of a strong tower as something a lot more important than today – ie – I have never had to ‘take cover’ so to speak… But it hit me a lot more when I just thought, ‘The name of the LORD is the safest place!’ (not to try and change the bibles words, but rather to apply it!) Because in that age, there was no place safer than a strong tower. So I ask myself…what is the safest place for me? Well, the places I have felt safest are:

1.Wherever my dad was with me!

2. Within your family/home

3. In the UK.

So I thought about what makes these places feel so safe?

-for #1 it was having someone I trusted so deeply to protect me.

-for #2 it was being with people that I knew would not judge/condemn me, and whom I knew looked out for my best interests.

-and for #3 it was being somewhere that I knew that my life was protected, and I was out of harms reach!

And so I apply all these to prayer… prayer is exciting and important…I love to pray…but thinking about it as all the above, makes it really jump out at me!

God is good :)