Keep, Stay, Trust

"You keep him/her in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because they trust in you." - Isaiah 26:3

As I read this verse, three words stand out for me.
KEEP
STAYED
TRUST

They all speak of some kind of action - a deliberate movement towards being in the presence of God. We should always seek to 'STAY' our mind on Christ, so that we can 'TRUST' in God's love and mercy. The result of these two things working together is being KEPT in the perfect peace of Jesus. Jesus' response is also an action - to securely enfold us with his care.

What thoughts come to your mind when you read this verse?

"People with their minds set on you,
    you keep completely whole,
Steady on their feet,
    because they keep at it and don’t quit.
Depend on God and keep at it    because in the Lord God you have a sure thing." - from the Message version of Isaiah 26

Living in Grace
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When we rely upon ....?

Who or what are you relying on at the moment? Invariably, we limit what God can do in our lives when we rely on other people/things. I feel that God graciously steps aside and lets us carry on along our own path until we choose to bring our prayers to him.

"When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; 

when we rely upon education, we get what education can do; 

when we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do, and so on. 

Nor am I disposed to undervalue any of these things in their proper place, 

but when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do. - A.C. Dixon

Who are you relying on today?

Psalm 59:17 - You are my strength, I sing praise to you; you, God, are my fortress, my God on whom I can rely.

 

Living in Grace

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Do you depend on it?

How many times do you look at your phone in a day? Just think about it for a moment and then do the maths. If we consider that we spend about 8 hours/day sleeping (if we are lucky), then we are awake for the other 16 hours. If you looked at your phone 5 times an hour, that would make it 80 times a day, but I think that many people look at their phones more than that.

So, if you smoked 80 cigarettes a day would you consider that a lot?!
If you needed a drink 5 times an hour, would you be worried?
If you looked at pornography more than 80 times a day, what would you think?
If you felt you had to shop every hour of that day would you not be bankrupt?

So, here is the thing - I think many of us (including myself) are tending towards addiction - technology and social media have had huge impact on our lives and we are very good at justifying that we only "use them" for work purposes or to connect with others. This may be true, but then most addicts would say the same thing.

I am challenged to make sure that I am not abusing the 'gift' of social media and technology. Like all good things, when it is abused it can cause endless harm. I need to remind myself daily that I should depend on the Lord and not on other things. This is why a few friends have given up Social Media for Lent - that is a good practise - challenging, but good!

"The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him." - Lamentations 3:25

If you are near Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday 8th March pop into the Wesley Methodist Church at 6:30pm - we are speaking openly about addiction and our guest speakers are going to be including the topics of Technology/Social Media in their address. It should be challenging indeed.

Depend on the Lord today. Use your technology, but don't let it own you.

Living in Grace
D3LM3