One verse for today!  But a good one to memorize and carry around with you for a long, long time.  The Bible says that the Lord is our ‘strong tower’.   Christians today are under great pressure, even for their lives,  because they name the name of Jesus Christ.  Wherever you may be, to say you’re a Christian is to open yourself up to unbelievable scorn, ridicule and ostracism.  Some safe tower, you may say.  What does this mean?   What gives?  What about the ‘strong tower’?

I think you know the answer.  We were made for paradise…and this ain’t it!!  Not after what sin has done.  This promise of the strong tower must be for somewhere else, someplace different than ‘this old world’.  Yes, of course, it’s for where God is,  where He keeps us safe. It’s for heaven.   Keep looking up where heaven is, where God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit give us their strong tower to safely run to.

Cherish the safety of your relationship with the Lord here and now as a foretaste of things to come.   Remember when Jesus said that if we had the faith of a tiny mustard seed,  we could approach mountains saying to them  ‘be tossed into the sea’, and they would?  That’s found in Mark 11: 25.  We know what Jesus obviously doesn’t mean.  Mountains, wherever you live, are still there even though some well-meaning person prayed and wanted them in ‘Davy Jones Locker’!

Something else is going on.  At the Christian Church I served for 14 years, we always ended the worship service by singing the chorus to the old hymn ‘Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus’–‘look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace’.

Look up to Jesus, who is way above any mountains you and I may face.   Looking to Him fully,  you notice that our mountains of trouble don’t seem as evident.  Maybe you don’t notice them at all.  It’s as if when we fully concentrate on Him, that mountains move aside…and, in a sense,  disappear!

That’s what the’ strong tower’ image means.  Not for here completely…but especially for there and then.  In heaven with our Lord, who opens the tower doors and gates and welcomes us home, safe and sound.  You know what?   I don’t even see those mountains anymore!  Only the One who made them and can move them aside… for you and for me.  ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus…’

Prayer:  Oh Lord, thank you that no matter what happens to me in this life, I am safe and secure in Your arms.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.