In the Fast Lane 2023 - Day 3

Well here we are on our third and final day already. May God strengthen you today. 

Let us focus on verse 11, firstly that God ‘is with us’. As we consider the year ahead, isn’t it a comfort to know that we do not face it alone? Feel Him or not...God is with us! 

Of course, as the writer of Hebrews 13:5 says that God has promised that ‘never will I leave you and never will I forsake you’. 

If you are anything like me, there are many times that God does not feel close and yet by faith we know that He is. Our feeling Him does not make Him any closer. He is WITH us. 

This is so important for us to realise that it is even one of the ways Jesus is described in the Bible - EMMANUEL God with us. I think that sometimes my inability to feel Him is more based on the fact that whilst He is with me, I fail to give Him my attention. Let us acknowledge the presence of the One who is always with us today. 

The final line of this Psalm is: ‘The God of Jacob is our fortress’. What a beautiful thought to take into our new year. That God is with us and He is also our Fortress. Another interpretation of this word ‘fortress’ in the original language is ‘Refuge’ our place of safety, the place we can run to in troubled times. 

This word ‘refuge’ also means a high rock and shelter. God is our high rock and shelter and therefore when we take refuge in Him, we shall not be overcome and we shall not be overwhelmed. As Romans 8 says ‘if God is for us, who can be against us’. 

Please allow me to pray for you: 

Dear Lord, I pray for every reader of this devotional that its truthswill reverberate throughout the year. By your grace and with the help of the Holy Spirit, may they find a new ability to ‘be still and know that you are God’. 

May they take a new awareness of the reality that you are indeed ‘with us’ and that you are both our fortress and refuge. May the blessings of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be our portion, both now and in the coming year. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen