Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled Our True Refuge is God was written by Karen Huang.

After his wife died, Fred felt he could endure the pain as long as he had his Monday breakfasts with his buddies.

His fellow retirees lifted his spirits.

Whenever sadness came, Fred would think about the next time he'd enjoy their company again.

Their corner table was his safe place from grief. Over time,

however, the gatherings ended. Some friends became ill. Others passed away. The emptiness led Fred to

seek solace in the God he'd met in his youth. I have breakfast by myself now, he says,

but I remember to hold on to the truth that Jesus is with me. And when I leave the diner,

I don't leave to face the rest of my days alone. Like the writer of Psalm 91, Fred discovered the safety and comfort of God's presence.

He is my refuge in whom I trust.

Fred came to know safety not as a physical place to hide, but as the steadfast presence of God that we can trust and rest in.

Both Fred and the psalmist found that they didn't have to face difficult days alone.

We too can be assured of God's protection and help.

When we turn to him in trust,

he promises to respond and be with us.

Do we have a safe place,

a corner table we go to when life is hard?

It won't last, but God will.

He waits for us to go to him, our true refuge.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Psalm 91, verses 1 through 2, and 14 through 16.

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

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