Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Sheltered In The Storm
A scene from Yellowstone stops us in our tracks: rangers walk a burned forest and find a mother bird, turned to ash at the base of a tree. When they gently move her, three chicks run out from under her wings. That picture of fierce protection sets the tone for a grounded, hope-filled morning as we explore what real refuge looks like when life gets hot and fear grows loud.
We turn to Psalm 91 and let its language become a place to stand: shelter of the Most High, shadow of the Almighty, refuge and fortress, feathers and wings, shield and rampart. These aren’t abstract metaphors; they’re everyday anchors for nights of worry, breaking news, and moments when our plans fall apart. Trust here isn’t denial; it’s the decision to rest under a covering that doesn’t abandon us when the flames rise.
If this reflection helped you breathe a little deeper, share it with someone who needs a quiet place to rest today. Subscribe for weekday encouragement, leave a quick review to help others find the show, and tell us: which line from Psalm 91 will you carry with you this week?
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack, and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. I would like to share with you this morning a story I came across in an old National Geographic magazine. It was about a fire that there had been in Yellowstone National Park. The article was written as the reporter traveled with the forest rangers who went through the park examining the impact not only on the vegetation and the trees, but also on the wildlife and talking about what it would take for the park to be able to recover. In their trip through the park, one of the rangers came across a rather disturbing sight. He found a bird that was literally petrified in ashes on the ground at the base of a tree. He picked up a stick and turned the bird over. When he did that, three baby chicks scurried out from underneath their mother's wings. He'd taken her children, her babies, from the nest high up in the tree and taken them down to the base of the tree, and then surrounded them by her wings and shielded them with her body as the fire came through the area. Even when she was being scorched by the fire, even when it was destroying her, she still stayed and protected her children. I read that story and I go, This is an amazing picture of God's love for us. And I immediately thought of Psalm 91, the psalm that so many of us are hanging on to right now as we're facing the coronavirus, as the strife is all around us, where we feel that we are needing God's hand and protection. Psalm ninety one, let me just read it to you, the first seven verses. Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. That mama bird and taking her chicks to protect them, it's such a powerful visual of what God does for us and what he wants to do for us. When there's destruction coming our direction, when things are coming at us to try and destroy and to tear us down, God says, if you come, I will put my wings around you and I will protect you and I will hold you and I will keep you safe. It's that protection by God that we need. That's that protection that we hang on to, and we're so grateful for to our God. So today let me remind all of us that we are in God's hands. He's got his arms and his wings around us, he's protecting us, loving us, and looking after us. We can put our faith and our trust in him because he has promised he would be there for us. Have a great day, my friends. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Danny Mack.
