Psalm 11:1-3 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

1In the LORD I take refuge.
How then can you say to me:
“Flee like a bird to your mountain!
2For behold, the wicked bend their bows.
They set their arrow on the string
to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.
3If the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”

Standing or Fleeing?

In my earlier years as a believer in Jesus Christ I stood strong on what I understood of the teachings of the Scriptures and of the gospel message of our salvation. I didn’t then have the knowledge I do now, but what I knew I held on to and I did not let go of it. I began teaching the Scriptures at age 16, and I was very serious about the Lord and His word. And I defended His word against the lies of the enemy. I was not perfect in every way, but I obeyed the Lord and His Word, and I followed Him wherever He led me.

But then I got weaker emotionally as I was going through menopause, and the opposition got much stronger and more consistent. For it was like the devil was taking a hammer and was just knocking me down one situation after another. As soon as I got back up he just knocked me down again. And eventually I did flee like a bird, and I did give up trying, and then God would draw me back. And then the hammer would come down again, and I would run away again. But then God brought me back (final) and I stopped fleeing.

Now running away from what was hard to endure never solved anything, and it never made anything better. It only made things much worse. So I am here to tell you, from experience, that escaping and retreating solve nothing. Now we should escape sin and temptation to sin, but we should not, when life gets complicated, and when the pressure is on, retreat to what is not of God and is against God. By the grace of God, and in the power of God, we must keep the faith and endure the suffering in the strength God gives us.

The Foundations are Destroyed

So, what can the righteous do if the foundations are destroyed? First of all, what are the foundations being spoken of here? Well, if they are God’s foundations, we are to stand strong on those foundations even if an army comes against us to destroy us because we hold to the truths of God’s word and we will not deny them. Even if everyone we know deserts us, and if the multitudes come against us because we hold to the truths of the Scriptures taught by Jesus and His apostles, we must hold strong to the truth.

But we absolutely do live in a day and time when the foundations of Christianity, and of what it means to be a follower of Christ, has all but been destroyed, at least it has here in the USA. For so many people are now adopting a half-truth false altered gospel based in Scriptures taught out of context and made to say what they do not teach if taught in context. And many people are believing they can believe in Jesus, have their sins forgiven, and be on their way to heaven, while they still live in sin.

So many have now made room in “the gospel” for all who profess faith in Jesus to continue to live dishonest, crooked, immoral, sinful, corrupt, and wicked lives. They permit them to keep wandering in their sin. And they have removed from the gospel message God’s requirements that we must deny self, die to sin daily, and walk in obedience to God’s commands, in life practice, or we do not have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For they call that “works salvation.” And they call what they do “God’s grace.”

When Must We Flee?

Again, we must never flee from God or from the truth of the Scriptures or back into sin or to escaping from having to stand strong against the enemy with the truth of God’s Word. But we are to flee from disobedience, and from sin, and from dishonoring God with our lives in how we live. And we are also commanded of God to flee from ungodly unions and partnerships with the world and with the ungodly and which includes with the institutional market-driven businesses called “churches” which are diluting the gospel of Christ.

[Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22; Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5]

But the church is not a building or an institution of man or a business or a church denomination. The church is not something you go to once or twice a week for an hour or two. The church is the body of Christ, the universal body of believers in Jesus Christ throughout the world which meets together in various locations. We are all who have died with Christ to sin and who should now be living for God in walks of obedience to His commands, in life practice, in the power of God. And we are to serve God with our lives.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

I Take Refuge in The Lord
An Original Work / November 12, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Blessed Be Your Name

by Matt Redman

In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness

When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s ‘all as it should be’
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering

Blessed be the name of the Lord

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

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