We love to sing about the Lord being our refuge in time of trouble, but we don't like to think about the trouble coming.
Trouble causes the need for a refuge, an intimate place of comfort and protection. It's a place we long for and love when found. Psalms 27:5, "For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock." Trouble brings us to the secret of His tabernacle and sets us upon the rock which cannot be moved. Where is the rock? Up. The rock is higher than we are and higher than we will be without it!

You cannot have a victory without a battle. All the conflicts we have in this world are opportunities for us to yield ourselves to God. They are moments of conflict where we decide if we will follow Christ and trust God. They are not opportunities to lose, but opportunities to win.

God gives us the liberty to live for ourselves, to reject Him, receive Him, hate Him, or love Him. He gave us the liberty to experience everything evil and to be defeated by the enemy. But He also gives us the opportunity to have every victory in Christ. Without the liberty to lose there would be no liberty to win. The liberty to choose who you will serve and who you will love is the liberty that brings victory in Christ, because only in Christ can you have victory.