\"The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!  Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior!\"
(2 Sam 22:47 NIV)

\"Who is your rock?\"  Have you ever thought much about this? 

In a show or movie where there is death of a loved one, it is common to hear the line \"He is my rock\" or \"She is my rock\".  Most of the time those words are uttered when there is the distinct possibility of losing that person from his or her life through death or some other kind of separation and they are trying to emphasize how important the person is to them.

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David, who was a man after God\'s own heart (1 Sam 13:14), stated emphatically and repeatedly (14 times in 9 different psalms) that God was his rock.  God was his rock when he was a shepherd boy, all alone protecting the sheep. This was not some mystical philosophical belief that David had--it was translated into reality many, many times.  \"But David said to Saul, \"Your servant has been keeping his father\'s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.  (1 Sam 17:34-36 NIV)  Can you picture this shepherd boy running toward a lion or bear, not from them?  It must have been refreshing to God to see this young man with such an innocent and complete trust in his Maker that moved him to make such steps of faith with seeming reckless abandon.

These bold steps of trusting God as his rock led him later to face even the giant, Goliath.  His confidence was clearly not in his own muscle mass, but in his rock:  \"The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.\" (1 Sam 17:37NIV)

Who is the rock in your life?  Is it a person or is it the Lord?  God definitely brings different people to us to encourage our souls, comfort our hearts and make us more resolute.  I have been so richly blessed to have many extraordinary brothers and sisters in my own life to provide all of those things and so much more.  They have enriched me, led me, discipled me, stretched me, changed me, and inspired me.  God used them to enable me to become more like Christ.  But I can tell you one thing that they have not been and can never be for me:  my rock.

As we mature, most of us realize that no matter how much people try to be there for us, there really is only one whose foundation is stable enough, whose shoulders are broad enough, whose time is flexible enough, and whose heart is big enough to be our rock--it must be God.  Only God has the amount of time, love, patience, energy, and perseverance to be the rock in our lives. As children of God, we must never ever become so enamored with or dependent on an individual that we do not believe that we could live wi hout them. That is what the Almighty wants to be for you--your rock. 

So when you are faced with anxiety, pain, fear, and circumstances beyond your ability or control, do what David did.  In your prayers, pour out that worry onto your rock, surrender those painful and fearful emotions to your rock--God can handle it.  He\'s bigger than anyone or anything you\'ll ever face.  Who is your rock?

\"My soul finds rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.\"
(Ps 62:1-2 NIV)