The more the world around me accelerates into chaos and confusion, the more peaceful I feel. While people about me are in despair, I find a quiet solitude in the presence of my Lord. His words are like a soothing balm spread over an abrasion. A healing balm that brings relief to an open wound. In His Word, I find a hiding place, a refuge from the madness going on around me.

There, His truth makes sense and I comprehend with an understanding not of myself, but one that is illumined by the Holy Spirit. I feel my heart swell with each promise that I read. I literally have nothing to fear.

The Lord God is my high tower, my rock, my defense, my deliverer, my provider, my healer, and I can say with David in Psalm 84: 1, 2 and 10, 11, 12

How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee.

And so, I close my eyes and find myself in the courts of the Lord. I lean against a pillar of gold, and brush my hands along the cedar walls over-laid with gold. I breathe in the purifying scent of incense, and through faith in the risen Lord, I approach the throne of God, and there, find the wisdom of Proverbs 3: 21-26…

I shall walk safely and not stumble, lie down and not fear, but have sweet sleep. I will not be afraid of sudden fear, nor of the desolation of the wicked when it comes. The Lord shall be my confidence and shall protect me.

Truly, in His presence, I am blessed!