"In quietness and trust shall be your strength"
Isaiah 30:15
Watching an evangelist speak, I heard him say, "You need to stop striving. and enter into a place of rest. Cease your labors, and trust Jesus more than self. See with eyes of faith." Once again my thoughts turned to resting and all that it means. Trust and Rest. My words to meditate on this year. Jesus is relentless in bringing them to mind for me. He is good that way.
When we are told to stop striving or cease our labors, it does not mean we move into a place of passivity. It means we focus on Jesus and trust Him more than we trust what we are seeing and feeling. We trust Jesus more than ourselves or others. We stand firm, believing in His promises. Such as, He will work all things out for good, He is the God who heals, and He will never leave us. Standing firm on the promises found in His Word, we are able to stay calm and centered in "knowing what we know".
When we see with our senses, we can become fearful or filled with doubt. Remember Peter getting out of the boat to walk on the water to Jesus? He was brave to step out of the boat, to take a risk when everything in the natural world was so unpredictable. The crashing waves, rain and wind were hard to ignore. He was doing well until he took His eyes off of Jesus. Getting out of the boat did not seem to stop the storm from raging around him, but it did stop the storm raging within him............until.............Until he took His eyes off of Jesus. When He looked away from His source of safety, he panicked and down he went.
There is much to be learned from this Biblical story. Like Peter, we need to keep our eyes upon Jesus during the storms that come into our lives, whether these are external storms or internal ones. We are instructed to take our thoughts captive, harness our emotions, and see with eyes of faith. Sounds easy, right? Well, of course not, but we are not alone in this pursuit. The Holy Spirit has been sent to help us, and Jesus never leaves us. Never.
Just how do we take our thoughts captive, harness our emotions, and see with eyes of faith? I expect it is different for everyone, but for me it starts with keeping my eyes upon Jesus, through prayer, praise and worship.......Then I attempt to counter-attack those negative thoughts with scripture, calm my emotions with His promises, and see with eyes of hope, resting in the knowledge of how much we are loved and cared for. Once again I want to share with you the chorus of an old hymn that can give us a sense of peace as we trust in the promise that Jesus is our Savior in the storms.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of this world will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace
I am linking up to Spiritual Sundays.
6 comments:
So true! And OH, how I LOVE that song. I have been singing it to my grandkids for years. Thanks for a lovely visit via Spiritual Sunday.
Renee, I feel like we're always walking parallel paths, and God blesses me with your words and reflections. You also give me courage to follow Him more closely again outside of the hustle and bustle of NYC's demands. Hugs!
So true. With everything that's going on in my life, this truth is power, peace and joy. I know that God can and will heal me as He promised, but like peter, if i take my eyes off of Jesus, the symptoms of this horrible illness are overwhelming and can drown me. Thank you for sharing this. Thank you also for praying. God bless you!
You're so right, Renee. Keeping our eyes on Jesus is something active and not passive. Thank you for sharing these this reflection!
I needed this word this week! I have been anxious and found myself having to say, stop it! Take every thought captive, or they will run you over the cliff! The word the Lord gave me this week was Daily. His mercies are there daily, new daily.
Have a blessed Sabbath sister.
One time I wrote a post about striving - I came up with this:
S haron
T rying
R eally
I nsanely and
V ainly
I nstead of
N eeding
G od
Yup. Striving gets us nowhere - except maybe back to the foot of the Cross, exhausted!
Better to look at Jesus from the very beginning - the Author and Perfecter of our faith - and our peace.
GOD BLESS!
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