I think most people know the feeling of getting woken up in the middle of the night by the smoke alarm going off. It’s not exactly very fun, especially when you were having a great dream.
Maybe you were about to win an award, pet a dog, eat some food. I’m not sure. Whatever floats your boat.
Either way, you’re awake and probably startled for a second or two. You’ll eventually start groping around for your phone or your glasses, then you’ll rush out of bed to turn it off or find someone who will.
For the first few seconds of being awake, though, you might not really know where you are, but what you do know is you just want it to stop. The noise. It’s ear-splitting.
You don’t care what’s going on, or what’s surrounding you. All you care is that it stops.
Shouldn’t you care what’s surrounding you though before you rush out somewhere, or before you twist yourself up?
Because when we don’t know what’s around us (or Who’s around us), we tend to act out of fear.
A perfect example of even one of the greatest warriors, David, falling into this trap is in Psalm 31:22, “I had said in my alarm, ‘I am cut off from your sight.”
There’s a footnote in my Bible right next to “alarm”, and down at the bottom, my Bible translates it to haste. I don’t think that word choice is a coincidence.
David saw the spears pointing at him, the walls that were probably about to topple over, and the sorrow surrounding him.
It paints a perfect picture of us, too, shouting out of fear because all we are looking at are our earthly surroundings, while the doubt feels like it’s all that is around us, nothing else.
We allow fear to take over the microphone and dictate our thoughts and emotions. We let it do what it does best: blind us to the reality of what’s really around us.
I know I’ve done it.
David did it, too, but he knew about the One really around us, protecting us. He and all the apostles and prophets wrote about the One that can make the waves cease, the sky turn from grey to a rainbow, and the dead raise to life.
They wrote about a Shelter. A Fortress. A Rock. A Strong Tower. Even a Savior.
That is God. Jesus the Messiah. The One that really surrounds us.
So whatever it is you just woke up to, whatever it is causing the alarm, or whatever’s making you grope around in utter darkness, may David’s words remind you of your Fortress. “For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will lift me high upon a rock.”
I pray you would know you are not alone And may you never forget that your God is stretching out His hand towards you even in the darkness and the storm.
Matthew 14:27 “But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.'”
Psalm 61:2 “from the ends o the earth I call to You when my heart is faint. Lead me to a rock that is higher than I,”
Deuteronomy 31:8 “It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”