Running Into the Fortified Tower

The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.  The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it a wall too high to scale. Proverbs 18:10-11

While in Ireland in 2014 our family saw and walked through several fortified houses or strong houses.  The one pictured here has a fortified tower in one corner of the building.  The fortified tower looks to be the safest place to be if this building was attacked.  Those fortified towers were needed during times of attack to preserve the local community and its people. 

God's Wisdom for Navigating Life by Tim and Kathy Keller, includes a beautiful entry for April 26, that reveals the truth of a healthy response to our need for security.  We all have a place of ultimate security, some fortification of some sort that we run to for our protection.  The wealthy imagine that their financial security will be that fortified tower.  To those who have been put right with God through God's great mercy (the righteous), God's name is to become the fortified tower that they run to.  Keller further explains that God's name in the Bible is a way of speaking God's nature and attributes.  Thus, to run into God's name is to rehearse and tell yourself about who God is, and what his nature and character is all about.  When we panic during times of crisis or stress and try to find some other "fortified tower" to run to, we are failing to run into his power, his wisdom, his love for us.  

Going one step further, we learn of the nature and attributes of God by worshiping him, by studying the Bible, and by testifying to one another of his character and goodness.  We do all this so that when the trials of life come our way, as we know they will, we can run into God's attributes and find our security in him.