“’Because he loves me,’ says the LORD, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.’ “ Psalm 91:14

You, Lord Jesus, are a wonder, able in your incarnation to combine the unimaginable:

you were both God and man,

heavenly and earthly,

infinite and finite,

all-knowing and in need of teaching, perfect and yet learning obedience.

No one else could have united these mutually exclusive opposites!

I exalt you for your wisdom, your insight, your ability to understand  things that we cannot unite even in our farthest imagination. You are the complete One, the perfect One, the holy One, the worthy One.

Foe example,. Psalm 91 says, “Because You have made the LORD Your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge— no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent” (Ps. 91:9-10 ESV).  But then I think of Job, a man who made you his refuge, yet he suffered great tragedy, heartache, sickness, pain and problems both with his wife and his “friends.”

This is hard for us to understand. So, we must turn to you, Lord Jesus, as you have a bigger and better view of things. Your understanding of harm or evil is different than ours. Evil or harm is not what makes us uncomfortable or disappointed or in pain, but evil and harm are what damage us spiritually, what drive us away from you. As we make you our refuge, you are always there to protect us from spiritual harm.

Sometimes you lead us through the valley of the shadow of death, just as you were led by the Spirit into the desert to be tested. That was certianly not a pleasant time, but it was necessary so you could be the perfect Savior. And so with us, as we move through different testings we can know they are designed to mature, deepen and train us so we will be “perfect and entire,” as it says in James 1.

Help us to always strive to see things from your point of view, Lord, and to always offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving so we can rest in you, knowing that you will protect us from true harm.