I love you Lord, you are my strength.  ​

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. 

He is my shield, the strength of my salvation, and my stronghold.

Psalm 18:1-2 (NLB)

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God can be our rock, our fortress—a place of protection.

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The Lord saves the godly, He is their fortress in times of trouble.

Psalm 37:39 (NLB)

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God wants us to go to him in times of trouble.

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The Lord Almighty is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress.

Psalm 46:7 (NLB)

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God is not far away, He is here, among us!

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O God, listen to my cry! Hear my prayer! ​

From the ends of the earth, I will cry to you for help, for my heart is overwhelmed.

Lead me to the towering rock of safety, for you are my safe refuge,

a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.

Psalm 61:1-2  (NLB)

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Wherever we are, especially when we are overwhelmed, God wants us to cry out to Him.  He will lead us to His safe refuge!

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I wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.​

  He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken.

  Psalm 62:5-6  (NLB)

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We have hope with God.  He can do anything and wants to do great things in us, even quieting our quivering, fearful souls.

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Be to me a protecting rock of safety, where I am always welcome.​

Give the order to save me, for you are my rock and fortress.

Psalm 71:1-3 (NLB)

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God will never reject us, we are always welcome when we come to him.

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Telephones use to be just for making phone calls, but have you seen the new cell phones?  I am sure you have!  Can you believe all of the things that they can do?  On my new cell phone you go to the directory and click on one of twelve different options.  It is so cool.  At a brief glance, there are at least twenty different things you can do just on one option.  With the options, you can listen to music, organize your schedule, and take pictures.  You can even have a picture of each of your contacts come up when you call them.  Now, some of us have cell phones and don’t have any idea of all the features they offer.  Maybe some of us are so set in our old ways that we refuse to learn the new things that can be done with a phone.  And then there are some of us who think we don’t need to know, we’re just fine the way we are.  Cell phone options can help us, but we have to know they are available and how to tap into them.

 

So what do fancy, new cell phones have to do with Christianity?  I’m glad you asked!

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Perhaps you have always thought that being a Christian got you to heaven.  And, you’re right, believing in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, does get us to heaven.  The security of knowing we are going to heaven and that Jesus Christ is preparing a place for us to be with him forever is absolutely the most awesome thing in the world.

 

But God, not only wants to be with us in eternity, he wants to be a huge part of our earthly lives. Just like the fancy cell phone, there are so many more options and features to God than most of us realize.  One of the options in Christianity that it seems many people miss, is “God as our Fortress.” Let’s take a minute and click on God’s option of Fortress.

 

What are the benefits of the option of Fortress?
 
God’s fortress is a place of safety, a place where our enemies cannot reach us, a place of protection, a place to hide, or a place where we are safe, a refuge. (Ps 3:5, 18:1-3, 28:1, 31:2-3, 61:3-4, 94:22-23)  First of all it provides us with protection (Ps 2:13, 41:1, 57:1) We can be kept safe from our enemies. (Ps 16:1, 37:28)   We can even be protected from the plots of wicked schemes (Ps 64:2)

 

God will rescue us from all of our troubles. (Ps 31:1-2,5; 34:17-20, 37:40, 50:15, 54:7; 69:29).  We can sleep in peace and be set free from our fears, knowing God is always ready to help, that He is on our side. (Ps 3:5, 34:6-7; 37:5, 46:1, 54:4, 56:9-11)  We can run to His fortress.  We may be led or pulled from the traps set for us and set in a safe place.  He may reach down and rescue us or He may lead us to His fortress. (Ps 18:18-19, 31:3-4, 8, 21) 

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Besides all of that when God is our fortress we are blessed, our prayers are heard, and we will be carried in the arms of God.  (Ps 31:19, 22; 34:6-7, 17-18; 68:19-20)  God will always welcome us into His fortress. (Ps 37:28) 

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How about the cell phone commercials of “Can you hear me now?”  “How about now?”  Over and over in scriptures we are assured that whenever we cry out, He will hear our voice! (Ps 55:16-19) When God is our Fortress He always hears, and is always ready to help!

 

Psalm 2:13 summarizes the option of fortress this way, “But what joy for all who find protection in Him.”

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In the Bible we must always be looking for the promises of God.  We are to expect these promises to be brought about in our lives.  However, there are always conditions to receiving God’s promises.  God does not discriminate nor does He play favorites.  We must put ourselves in a position to receive these promises, some call it being ‘blessable.” 

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As parents, we give to our children as they are ready to receive.  We wouldn’t give our two year old the keys to our Ford dually and let him drive it.  If we had given our teenager a Ford dually and he wasn’t responsible, the dually might be taken away.  When a child rebels and refuses to obey, he loses many of his privileges.  It isn’t that the parents have quit loving him, he just can’t handle it.  Comparing the option of fortress to a parent and child is something like this:  The maturity and attitude of the child determines how the parent handles each situation. When a child is small and doesn’t know any better the parent protects him, even if he doesn’t want it.  But when the child knows better and chooses to run away from all that the parent has provided, or ignores all of the warnings the parent has given—then the protection the parent wanted to provide is greatly diminished.  When we, as adults, ignore God’s commands or run from Him, God lets us have ‘our fun’— but we lose much of his protection.  We are often hurt because we ran from the protection God had provided.

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How will God become our fortress? 

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None of us are perfect and none of us perfectly obey.  However, when we choose to let God work in us, we become mature Christians with certain qualities in our lives. The more willing we are to learn and believe in God the more these qualities grow. Our hearts are right with Him. (Ps 7:10) When we sin, we quickly repent. (Ps 50:22-23)  We love, fear, and trust God. (Ps 31:14, 37:3-5, 50:15, 56:9-11, 62:8, 91:14-16; 115:9-11, 145:8-10)  We are righteous, godly and loyal.  (Ps 31:23, 34:19, 37:28, 37:39-40, 55:22, 56:9-11, 97:10-12)  God is our source of hope. (Ps 31:24, 71:4-5, 146:5-9)  

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If we have these qualities developing in our lives but still don’t feel that God is our fortress, here may be the missing pieces.  God, and God alone must be the one we go to and look to for protection.  (Ps 7:1, 18:30, 31:1, 34:5; 57:1; 59:1-2, 64:2,143:8-9)  We must depend on the Lord alone to save us, He must be our strength.  (Ps 33:20; 59:9-10)  We must make the Lord alone our refuge, shelter, and place of safety.  (Psalm 91) 

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Whenever we face trouble, we cry out to God for help.  We must believe that He hears our prayers and is in the process of sending help.  God is so creative and has the entire universe at His disposal. The ways in which He rescues and protects are infinite.  When we believe in God as our fortress, there are no coincidences.  We know it is the divine hand of God protecting, directing, and setting us in that safe place.