He seems to always be our last resort.

Psalm 46:1

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

When you boil down our humanity, what is it that man is looking for ALL the time? Think about it, we look for shelter and we look for a way to feel stronger than we really are, that's about it. I like the way Tony Robbins (the famous motivation speaker) puts it: "we are always looking for ways to get out of pain and into pleasure." In my opinion, that's right on target!

What is our pain? How do we get out of it? There are always resting places we can manufacture. There is a the resting place in a good bottle of vodka. Maybe our resting place is cocaine, work or sex, etc. Our refuge, is whatever takes our minds away from the pain we are experiencing. But there is something in common with all these drugs of choice; it's always a temporary fix, a temporary high and in the end, we always crash back to reality.

So this verse says "God is our refuge and strength"... I think EVERYBODY actually knows this. Why do I say this? Well, when we get in trouble and we have exhausted every refuge we can think of and we are at the end of our wits, what do we usually say? "Oh God!!!" Isn't it funny how we call him when we have exhausted all our self made options and when we have no where else to turn, we cry out for him?

What if we just went to him in the first place? What if when trouble came, we said, "God, this is too much for me, this is beyond my capacity to fix! Help me!" It sounds too easy, it may even sound stupid and ineffective, perhaps "religious"... yet, HE seems to always be our last resort. However, God allows these afflictions on us so that we learn to turn to him.

Ultimately it is our choice to choose when to turn to Him. We can prolong the pain as long as we can stand it or we can call on Him who is always ready to help in the time of need.