Our Dwelling Place

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty. [...] Because thou hast made the Lord...thy dwelling place, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." Ps. 91:1, 9-10

These thoughts are not fanciful idealism; they are solid, practical truths of life. It is true that your physical dwelling, possessions, and relationships may be touched by evil and plague; your own body may be as well. Such is the way of the world. However, when God is your true dwelling place, nothing can ultimately touch, for God, His character and His promises, are sure and secure. The soul that is "hide with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3) may be beset by many troubles, but they will never be shaken. This is not prosperity gospel; Job 13:15 and Romans 8:37 encapsulate these truths more than the tenets of prosperity dogma. The one who has made God their dwelling place has become fundamentally unconquerable, and evil and plague can never truly touch them again, though the body they may kill.
"Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him.... I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him..." (vs. 14-15). Deliverance necessarily implies that one is in the midst of something, and it is a hard truth that much of human life means being "in the midst" of things. Nevertheless, the one who has made God their dwelling, their love, their one and only desire, will find deliverance, whether it by a miracle in the moment or death that gives way to victory. Like the Lord, the Christian is to put no stock in the people and things of this world, for we know that they are fallen and fragile, and will fail (John 2:23-25). Instead, our hope is in the eternal God who is and neither falls nor fails, and whoever dwells in Him shall never be moved (Ps. 15).

-Jon Vowell

Restlessness vs. Stillness

"There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Isaiah 57:21

Those who trust in God find peace, both in life (vs. 13b-19) and in death (vs. 1, 2). Those who trust anything else, any man (vs. 7-9) or any other, lesser god (vs. 5, 6) will never find peace. Peace belongs to God and God alone; nothing else can give it, but oh how we try! We will do anything other than come as paupers to the throne of grace. We will fall into a million side eddys and ignore the true pathway of the sea. We will head into every tourist trap on the way rather than head for home. To be outside of God is to be ever restless (vs. 20): you go hither and thither, instability your only comfort, the 'next thing' your only hope.

The only movement found in a child of God is a movement deeper into stillness, into peace, into God Himself. The child of God is to be marked by (amongst other things) the irresistible stillness of their Father, a stillness that wreaks havoc on the soul of the restless, because it serves to accentuate that they are on the outside looking in. "Be still, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10a) To know God is to know stillness; not just any stillness, but His stillness, and to not know Him is to know only the restless desire for stillness.

"Be still, oh restless soul of mine.

Bow before the Prince of Peace;

Let the noise and clamor cease..."

(Steven Curtis Chapman)

-Jon Vowell

Peace from Knowledge

"All thy children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children." Isaiah 54:13

The true knowledge of peace comes from God, because it is the knowledge of Himself. Anyone can have knowledge, but they are never guaranteed contentment and calm; quite the opposite actually (Ecclesiastes 1:17, 18). The only knowledge that secures peace to a person is that knowledge that comes from God about God. Without Him, there is always some final piece missing, some last part that binds the whole thing together, some missing premise that brings us to the proper and desired conclusion. Without Him, we are, in effect, fumbling in the dark with we know not what.

Knowledge from God is the only knowledge of peace because it is the only knowledge that accounts for Him. All other thinking starts somewhere else: man, principles, ideals, 'gods,' etc. These things reveal themselves, however, as inadequate foundations, chiefly because they do not secure peace; they do not secure stability of mind and soul on the surety that everything is indeed okay. Only the knowledge that God gives provides peace. When He instructs us, then no matter what else we learn, we are secure from fear and despair: "Yes, I know this says such and such; but there is a God, and this is who He is and what He is doing." The knowledge God gives is the knowledge of peace because it is always a revelation of Himself, and He is the source of peace.

"Teach me, Father, by Your Hand

And no one else.

Draw me close to You

And make me as

Unshakable as You are..."

-Jon Vowell