Isaiah 26:3 Simple Obedience

The verse from Isaiah, "Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon thee," has been going around and around in my head this entire week.  In a sense, I thought that if I could keeping thinking Scripture during this time of intense stress due to the growing pains here at Lamplighter, that I would be able to stay in perfect peace.  Well, that didn't work!

Then I learned tonight that I was missing an important part of the verse. The complete verse reads: "Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon thee, because he trusts in you." You can't very well possess peace if you are thinking Scripture and trusting in yourself…no wonder I have had a miserable week so far.  

But what does trusting in God look like?  You see, the problem that I have is not that I am unable to trust God, but that he might not be able to trust me. The decisions I make, the way I treat people, how I deal with lustful thoughts, my attitudes etc….are factors that reveal whether my mind is truly "stayed" upon him. If I'm thinking God's thoughts, then my ways will change. When my ways change, then it becomes easier to trust God. It's really that simple, but oh so difficult to remember.

A Lesson Learned:

            Sometimes we are searching for answers so anxiously that we think if we just work a little extra, we will get on top of the enormous work load that is piled upon us. So we cut prayer meeting, miss dinner with the family, and maintain shallow relationships. Tonight was not one of those nights for me…though it could have been easily. Traveling as much as I do, it is rare that I get to attend prayer meeting at church. It was ten minutes to seven and I had about four hours of work to do before I was prepared for another conference tomorrow.  But something in me compelled me to put my work aside and go to prayer meeting. While at prayer meeting, someone heard me quote the Isaiah verse and then said that I left an important part out. Life is really not that complicated. When we do the things that God wants us to do and be at the places he wants us to be, he meets with us; guides us; reveals his will to us.