How to Find God’s Refuge in the Middle of Crisis – Episode 359

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Podcast episode with Dr. Michelle Bengtson and Lynne Rienstra sharing how to find God's refuge in the middle of crisis

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Episode Summary:

Trials and crises are inevitable. Jesus warned us they would come. While we cannot choose the trials we face, we can choose how we respond to them and look at them as opportunities to grow and learn more about God. In this episode of Your Hope-Filled Perspective, I am joined by Lynne Rienstra, author of the inspiring book Sacred Refuge: Finding Unexpected Shelter in Your Crisis. Lynne shares how her personal life crisis became a gateway to discovering God’s indestructible shelter. Through her book, she introduces women to a sacred sisterhood that unites modern and biblical stories of overcoming fear, loss, debt, and loneliness. Together, we explore how God’s love and compassion provide a soul-safe refuge, even in the midst of the most difficult challenges.

Quotables from the episode:

  • When COVID hit and like a lot of people, I just kind of went under fear. And after a week of not sleeping well, not eating well, kind of like what’s happening and what’s coming, I said, “This is crazy. “I am a blood bought and beloved child of the living God. “I am not going to let the enemy have any more time in my headspace or my spirit. And it was a time to boot him out and say, “you’re done. I will not live in fear.”
  • The Bible actually says, do not fear 365 times, right? One for every day of the year. And that was over. And then I started realizing if I’m dealing with fear, maybe other women are dealing with fear and struggling to find this safe refuge in who God is for us.
  • This is an invitation, as you mentioned, for women to come out of hiding, which is what fear, of course, puts us in, and into a soul -safe place that Jesus has built for us in the gospel.
  • He is so good and so powerful he can actually use the worst of circumstances for our good, which is to draw us to himself and to make us more like Jesus.
  • At four years old, my first memory actually was of watching my dad walk out the front door of our apartment and the enemy had his way, as the father of lies. Jesus calls him and the author of stealing, killing and destroying. He came and he began just to lie to me and he said something along the lines of, “Well, if your dad who’s supposed to love you and be there for you leaves, that must mean that you are literally nothing and no one. And the best you can hope for, girlfriend, is to fake your way through life, to put on a false persona, and you’re going to have to be the prettiest, nicest, sweetest, smartest, least rejectable version of you you can be just to survive. And I lived that way for years until the power of the gospel began to break through and show me my true identity.
  • I’ve learned how to do this over the years, to identify his lies. And then because he’s a liar and the father of lies, you flip them and you begin to hear in scripture and in the voice of the Lord, the truth.
  • So, the enemy comes and he says, “You are nothing and no one.” So, he’s just eviscerating me of any sense of value or worth. Well, I’m going to flip that on its head in light of the gospel, in light of who Jesus is and what he’s done for us. And in Christ, he says that I am someone, not no one, not nothing, something and someone. And more than that, that he’s my beloved, right? I’m a beloved child of the Father and I’m part of the beloved bride of Jesus and I’m a vessel of the Holy Spirit.
  • So, all three persons of the Trinity have something very specific to tell me about who I am.
  • And then the power of the gospel frees me from the second lie. The enemy said, the best you can hope for is to fake everybody out. So, the enemy wants us living in deception, right? That’s what happens with lies. Lies turn into deception, image, appearance. Don’t worry about the inside, you just get that mask on girl and walk through life and don’t let anybody reject you.
  • The power of the gospel refutes and turns that on its head. In fact, this is the sacred refuge that the book talks about, what Jesus has built for us through his perfect work. When he came and lived perfectly and died and then rose triumphantly. He literally pulled down and broke the power of the enemy to lie successfully and allow those wounds that have been placed into our hearts and spirits, etc. to prosper another moment. We don’t have to believe those lies anymore.
  • Jesus dealt with the worst crisis any of us will ever have ever faced and that is being eternally separated from our holy God. When he came and Paul says it very well in 2 Corinthians 5:21, it’s kind of an encapsulation of the gospel. God, the Father, made him who knew no sin, that’s Jesus, to be sin for us. And then Paul says, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So, two things are going on, on the cross. Jesus becomes our sin, receives all the wrath of the Father for what we deserved, right? There’s no condemnation left for us, Romans 8:1. And he changes the way the Father looks at us. When the Father now sees me and you and those who are listening, who have Jesus, who are in Christ, he sees the very perfection of Christ.
  • And that means that his Father’s heart is delighted in us. That’s the invitation to take off the masks. That’s the freedom that Jesus has purchased for us.
  • I think it’s possible that in the middle of the shaking which God is sovereign over, He is shaking us to wake us. He’s saying, will you come out of this kind of spiritual slumber that you’ve allowed yourself to fall into?
  • I understand what that feels like. I’ve had seasons of my life as a Christian speaker, as a pastor’s wife, as a leader, all those things, where I’m just like, you know, I just want to veg out. I just want to take three hours and binge something on Netflix, or I just want to eat that half thing, a half carton of ice cream, or I just, I want to check out. And I call those my other lovers, the things I go to apart from Jesus, who is our first love, Revelation tells us, right? – Yes. – When we turn to those other lovers over anything, overeating, over drinking, working, busy -ness can be another lover.
  • What we’ve really done is shifted our life foundation. I’m not saying we’ve lost our salvation, I’m saying we’re going to the wrong source to get our feet under us. And the shaking will be harder for us to deal with if we’ve been spending more time with our other lovers than with our first love, Jesus. So it’s about abiding in him.
  • My address shifted from living here as a citizen of Earth with an earthly perspective and oh my gosh, it’s all up to me and where is God? To, no, I’m a citizen of heaven. I’m a child of God and he’s got me and he’s covering me in his presence in a sacred refuge. Halfway through the writing of the book, I get the phone call nobody wants, and you’ve gotten this phone call, you understand it, the one in which your name and the C-word are put together in the same sentence. And it’s the phone call we just dread, right? Because the moment we hear that we have cancer or any other deadly disease, potentially deadly disease, we face our own mortality, right? That’s a gift. I’m just going to say, there’s a gift in the midst of that kind of crisis. It’ll change how we live our life. We won’t waste time and opportunity the way we perhaps formerly had it.
  • For me Michelle, I really had a sense, I mean, I knew this thing could take me out if I didn’t ask God to heal me and go through the medical protocols, et cetera. I ended up having surgery, ended up having radiation, and still am cancer -free. Thank you, Lord. He’s the healer. But in the midst of that, I had a moment of decision, and we really have this moment, day by day situation by situation, and that is we can pivot away from God and say, “I don’t know why you’ve allowed this. You can’t be good if you’re allowing this,” whether it’s our cancer or somebody else’s medical issue or whatever it is. Or we can believe the truth of scripture that promises us that he’s aware of it all and that he’s bringing good out of it all and that our greatest good is to know Jesus and become like Jesus. And then we can pivot toward Him. We lean into those everlasting arms. And God gave me grace to begin to learn how to do that.
  • He gave me this beautiful prayer. I just feel led to share it for listeners and viewers. “I am being held. I am being heard, my prayers are being heard. I am being healed.”
  • When they said, “Dr. Bengtson you have cancer,” I was like, you’ve got the wrong person. But we walked in and sat down in the waiting room for his appointment. And just like you said, the temptation was there to go down the slippery slope of worry, fear, and anxiety. But I had just the week before released my book, “Breaking Anxiety’s Grip.” I just sensed in my spirit, the Lord saying, “You have just written the prescription for you will get through this this phase in your life. Are you going to believe what you wrote or are you going to believe the lie of the enemy?” – That’s right. – And that allowed perfect peace.
  • Crisis comes with a gift. It’s the gift nobody wants.
  • You know, I’m thinking about Western North Carolina that got literally almost washed away after Hurricane Helene came in late September of 2024. And we hear story after story just from that response alone of people saying, “life was good, kids were fine, we have a nice house, I’m working hard, we’ve got the retirement account filling up, it’s great.” And then this hits and it’s all bets are off. Everything’s turned upside down in your life and yet this is the moment just like our cancer moment etc. when God shows up in a powerful way. I believe scripture teaches in Matthew 11:28-30 that invitation from Jesus, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden [all you who are saying I cannot do this] and I will give you rest.”
  • And it’s found in a relationship with him and what he did for us on the cross. So, what I’ve seen with men and women, families both here in the US suffering after a disaster or internationally, whether it was a famine, I saw emergency feeding going on in Uganda, refugees there. I was in the Middle East in our field hospital that we had there, etc. I watched people come to the end of themselves. And isn’t that the place where the Holy Spirit brings us so that he can also now bring us new life and regeneration in Christ?
  • Crisis hurts, it’s uncomfortable, everything in us as Americans, we just want our personal peace and comfort, predictability, control, and it flies in the face and destroys all of that. But it’s the moment when God shows up in power and says, “You are not alone. I am here and I am for you.” And “the reason you know that the reason you can get your feet under you right now in the middle of the shaking of this crisis is that I sent Jesus for you.” And the gospel, you know, what do we call him? Jesus is the rock of our salvation, right?
  • Terrible suffering…that’s not God’s idea. God didn’t plan for the fall. He didn’t want us to have cancer. He didn’t want people to be blown up by bombs, all the things. Oh, he was there. And I think there’s a sense in which God dwells in the midst of our brokenness. That’s who our God is. He has compassion for us. He draws near. He gave us Jesus who really, when we were sitting in the ditch, think Luke 10, the story of the Good Samaritan. We’re sitting in the ditch, ripped off by the enemy, but we’re sitting in the ditch of our own rebellion and sin and there’s not a darn thing we can do about it. But in compassion, Jesus, like the good Samaritan, he’s the ultimate Samaritan, right, the outsider, God himself, who sees us, has compassion, crosses the road, takes on flesh, gets into the ditch with us.
  • That is the enemy’s deception. If we’re in Christ, we belong to him, we have this invitation to come with boldness and confidence. So let me give you a visual picture, if I may, of what this looks like. For me, hearing the enemy’s lies when my dad left, you’re nothing, you’re no one. The most, you’re always going to be rejected, right? You’re just a fearful reject. That was the old story.
  • But what Christ does for us when he goes to the cross becomes our sin and gives us his righteousness. He fulfills the prophetic word all through the scripture, but particularly in Isaiah 61:10. And in that, inspired by the spirit, the prophet Isaiah says, “And you have placed on me the robe of righteousness.” What that means is we’re literally covered with the perfection and righteousness of Christ and that removes both the rags of rejection and the cape of capability it removes once and for all. The fear and the shame and that’s that innate sense of not being enough. We have to believe it. We have to believe that this is who we are now in Christ, and we really have to preach the gospel to ourselves every single day.
  • So there’s this invitation to see God for who he is. Take him at his word. Don’t go by the feelings that make you feel inadequate or feel like you’re about to, he’s going to pull the lever on the trap door, and you’re gone. No, Christ has dealt with that. And then verse four, the promise is, as you trust in Christ and who he has made you to be righteous in himself, he will cover you with his feathers. picture that mama bird opening up her feathers and all the babies nestled underneath, and I went there again and again during my cancer etc. He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you will find refuge. That’s the invitation for you right now.
  • That’s what we all need more than anything is to know that despite what is going on around us, what is happening to us, God provides that place of sacred refuge.
  • “What if, in the pain of your crisis, God is offering you an unexpected gift?”

 

Scripture References:

  • Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
  • Isaiah 61:10 “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
  • Isaiah 49:16 “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…”
  • Psalm 91:1-16 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly plague. He will cover you with His feathers; under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the calamity that destroys at noon. Though a thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, no harm will come near you. You will only see it with your eyes and witness the punishment of the wicked. Because you have made the LORD your dwelling—my refuge, the Most High— no evil will befall you, no plague will approach your tent. For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and cobra; you will trample the young lion and serpent. “Because he loves Me, I will deliver him; because he knows My name, I will protect him. When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”

 

Recommended Resources: (If there are affiliate links in this post, meaning, if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission (at no extra cost to you)).

 

Crisis has a way of shaking everything we thought was secure. But what if the shaking is an invitation to find God’s refuge? Tune in to the podcast as Lynne Rienstra and I talk about fear, healing, and standing firm in Christ. Share on X When life feels unstable, you have a choice. Pivot away from God in fear or pivot toward Him in trust. Tune into the podcast as Lynne Rienstra and I talk about how to find God’s refuge in the middle of crisis. Share on X

 

Social Media Links for Host and Guest:

Connect with Lynne Rienstra:

Website / Instagram

For more hope, stay connected with Dr. Bengtson at:

Order Book Sacred Scars / Order book The Hem of His Garment / Order book Today is Going to be a Good Day / Order Book Breaking Anxiety’s Grip / Order Book Hope Prevails  / Order Book Hope Prevails Bible Study /  Website  /  Blog  /  Facebook / Twitter (@DrMBengtson)  /  LinkedIn  /  Instagram / Pinterest / YouTube / Podcast on Apple

 

About Lynne Rienstra

Lynne Rienstra, authorLynne Rienstra serves Samaritan’s Purse as a regional director and has seen crises up close through her travels. She recently navigated her own crisis through cancer. Trained in English at Smith College, she also holds a certificate in Spiritual Formation. Along with her callings as pastor’s wife, women’s event speaker, and writer, Lynne finds joy in traveling, family and friends.

 

 

 

 

Hosted By: Dr. Michelle Bengtson
Audio Technical Support: Ashton Bengtson

 

 

When life feels unstable and fear starts to rise, you need more than quick reassurance. You need solid ground. If you are walking through a difficult season, learn how to find God’s refuge in the middle of crisis, replace fear with truth, and rest in your identity in Christ. Listen to this encouraging conversation with Lynne Rienstra and strengthen your faith for the storm.

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