The Rock!

“The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.”(Deut. 32:4)

Life shakes. Daily we face uncertain, uneven ground. We need the Rock.

Thank you for your prayers this past week! I needed every one of them. After an unbelievable series of setbacks involving Internet access, I got up one morning, turned on my laptop and discovered that most of my work from the day before was missing. Even after saving it to both my hard drive and a flash drive, it was gone!

I got down on my face, cried out to the Lord my Rock for help. Basically I said, “Lord, if You are trying to redirect me or slow me down because You don’t want me to be doing this right now for some reason, I will gladly stop. BUT, if this is not from You, I need your help.” I got up off my knees, returned to my laptop and found the work right in front of me on the computer.

Last week was an exercise in endurance to be sure, but progress was  made. I know those obstacles are so minor in light of what some of you are facing this very moment. Can we say together that He is our Rock and all His ways are perfect?

The word rock occurs 119 times in 108 verses in the New American Standard Version of the Bible. Forty of these references are to God as our Rock. There are four key passages where multiple verses are used to describe the Lord our Rock: Deuteronomy 32, 2 Samuel 22, Psalm 18 and Psalm 62.

In addition to Deuteronomy, 2 Samuel and Psalms, six other books of the Bible also name God as Rock: 1 Samuel, Isaiah, Habakkuk, Romans, 1 Corinthians and 1 Peter. Out of these, there are 14 Psalms and 6 chapters in Isaiah reminding us that God is our Rock, and you could even make a case in some of the other instances in the Bible where the word rock is used, that they are indirect references to the character of  Almighty God.

Wow! Over and over again, the Father repeats the truth and underscores the encouragement: I Am your Rock.

I would not lose the hard things from my life, The rocks o’er which I stumbled long ago, The griefs and fears, the failures and mistakes, That tried and tested faith and patience so.

I need them now: they make the deep-laid wall, The firm foundation-stones on which I raise – To mount therein from stair to higher stair – The lofty towers of my House of Praise.

Soft was the roadside turf to weary feet, And cool the meadows where I fain had trod, And sweet beneath the trees to lie at rest And breathe the incense of the flower-starred sod;

But not on these might I securely build; Nor sand nor sod withstand the earthquake shock; I need the rough hard boulders of the hills, To set my house on everlasting rock.  (Annie Johnson Flint)

What do you need to do today to experience God as your Rock? How can you draw near and stand secure in Him?