In the morning, especially if I wake up early, I look at my Facebook feed. It gives me a chance to look at what is happening and opportunities to pray for people as well. I do this as I am waking up (I may be up, but my brain is not fully functioning). This morning, I came across a couple of posts where people were sharing pics of how our society is “glued” to FB. It did make me think of “how is my family doing?” We are good on some things, but not on others.
So I saw the time, and started my Bible and prayer time (now that I am awake and can fully process things). I do Rachel Wojo’s Bible Reading Plans and pray thru a Psalm each day. Well when I looked up todays passage, I realized that I did it yesterday. So I looked at what I had missed – when I tried to click on Isaiah in my Bible app – it kept opening the chapter in Psalm. I finally did get it open and WOW – God really wanted me to see this one today….
Isaiah 26:1-13 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks.
Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust.
The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.”
The path of the righteous is level; you make level the way of the righteous.
In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.
My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.
O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works.
O Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance.
So I typically will paste the verses into my journaling app (Day One), then I highlight words that show God’s character or things He has given us. I did highlight a few parts above for us to focus on. (As a side note, we finally were able to go to church again this week – we have had 3 major snow storms that have caused problems for the previous 3 Sundays. Last week my daughter got stuck in a ditch and my hubby in a snow drift trying to “rescue” her. So it has been a bit crazy around here.)
It HAS been a crazy month for us, and I am sure for many of you. This week started a somewhat normal week for us, starting with Church on Sunday. God knows all of this. He knows the crazies we will experience. This verse is so comforting… You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. God will give us perfect peace, a peace we cannot understand, in the midst of all of our crazies – but we need to think on Him. We need to be trusting that He has our back – He cares about what is going on in our lives. I think I did ok on the major things that happened in the past few weeks. If I was starting to struggle, I turned to God and asked Him to help me. BUT, yesterday I was in a bit of the “little crazies”. Trying to do a bunch of little tasks that might have gotten missed, or recently sprung up. I was doing them with a joyful heart, as I was praising God in music through out my day. But I realize this morning that I was not in God’s “perfect peace”. I was checking things off my list, I was pretty productive, I was joyful, at peace (but NOT perfect peace). For one thing, I did NOT post here – a Bible post. I had so many other things to do – that I got side-tracked. This morning, when I read this passage, I did not even do my daily Psalm. I knew I needed to focus on this. I have my breakfast started and will go get it when I am done with this post. I just felt a Strong nudge to share this with you TODAY.
Are we earnestly seeking God – my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. Or are we just going through the motions. Read a few verses in the Bible and not really thinking about what it is saying. Are we truly seeking, with all of our heart, a relationship with God? That is my goal, not sure how I succeed every day? every moment? One way, I try to keep my focus is playing Christian music, in the background. Whether I am getting up to dance to a song (“time to stand” and get moving), singing praises to God, or just hearing a Word of Truth here & there – it does help me to keep my focus. I also have Scripture art all over my home, as a reminder, as an encouragement – as a focus on God. Of course, God will also remind me of verses I have memorized. I really do want to seek and follow God each day (hour, minute etc). I know that my life can be so full of joy, love, peace etc when I am trusting, seeking after God.
O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works. God has done it! He plans for us to have peace! He has done all that needs to be done. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith – the beginning and the end. He HAS accomplished it for us. He has given us His peace – we just need to accept it. We just need to slow down a bit. We need to be willing to have a relationship with Him. We need to turn toward our loving God and follow Him. He wants us to be like Him – He has chosen us – He planned it ALL before the world was created. He sent His Son Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins – to take our punishment. Have you accept this payment for your sin? Have you turned to God? Are accepting the Perfect Peace He is offering to you? I pray that you will experience God’s love today!
Well said! Without the peace of God beyond all understanding, where would we be in this world!! God bless!