“I can rest securely, while I lay my head on Christ’s bleeding side.” ~Augustine
People take refuge and find comfort in many different ways and places. For some they feel comfort and safety just being home, others at their favorite vacation destination. I have known many that would confess they find comfort and security being in nature, hiking, camping, ECT.
These are places where we can find our stress and tension kind of melt away, but only for that instance. The reality is the world and your problems still exist while you are in those places and will be waiting for your return. They do not stop, they do not go away. It can seem impossible at times to feel secure in an uncertain world. Endless changes everyday, illness, marital problems, work, terrible crimes, wars, and injustices everywhere can make comfort and security feel like a hopeless concept unless you retreat to your place of refuge.
It can become easy to get caught up in life’s drama and your desire for your place of comfort, while losing focus on where real security, real hope and comfort, actual true rest can be found.
In Christ we are promised all the above and more. Christ is our security, comfort at all times, even away from our earthly secure space.
- Psalm 122:6-7 ““May they be secure who love you! Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!”
- Proverbs 3:26 “For the LORD will be your confidence, And will keep your foot from being caught.
- Philippians 4:19 ” And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus”
- Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or in dread of them, for the LORD your God is the One who is going with you. He will not desert you or abandon you”
Those earthly places of refuge will one day pass away but the peace and security found in Christ is only the beginning of an eternal, immeasurable source of absolute security and a peace beyond what any mind can comprehend.
Augustines quote paints a picture in my mind of the Savior with His arm around us (I lay my head on Christs bleeding side). Not just the broken in spirit but all who are His. Christ didn’t just secure our eternal salvation but He is a constant security, a refuge in times of trouble and prosperity. A comfort to the broken and the well. I can go to Him at all times to find rest and I should go to Christ at all times to find rest.
The bleeding side was a confirmation of death, and with that death Christ expiates/ removed our sin and guilt. And with the resurrection Christ secured our future state, we will be raised to life as He was raised to life. I can find no other thing or place better for one to go for rest and security.
Make it a daily objective to look to Christ for rest. Meditate of His word as a source of strength in all times. Take His promises and store them in the fronts of your mind. He calls us to find security, rest and hope in Him, so look nowhere else other than Christ.
No King but Christ 