Choose to stand
Here are a few quick thoughts for the week. This is especially for you if you're in that place of discouragement or lethargy after all the stuff that's happened in the last few years.
It might be that you're still feeling a bit anxious after the pandemic. I meet loads of people who are still not back into anything that looks like a routine. Or maybe you're just overwhelmed with all of the new stuff you're hearing, which is overwhelming. Or perhaps you're in that place where you are questioning your faith.
So here are three things that you can do to help you refocus and make some choices about how you're living and where you're putting your attention. These will affect how you're living and, ultimately, feeling.
What are you spending your time contemplating?
2 Corinthians 3:18 says that as we contemplate or gaze or wait upon the Lord's glory, then we're transformed. So where is your gaze? What is it that you are contemplating? If you're spending your time looking into this pit of the mess of the stuff that's going on in the world? Well, you aren't going to feel rotten. But if you fix your gaze upon him, then what happens is you start to be transformed. So, where are you fixing your gaze?
What are you listening to?
The second one is from Isaiah 55:3, and the passage opens with “come to me, all you who are thirsty”, and there's this banquet provided free of charge, but then it goes on to say, “listen, that you may live”. So similar to the contemplation one, what are you listening to at the moment? What are the earworms that you have? Those things that keep whizzing around and overwhelming you? You have got a choice about what you listen to. You can choose to listen to the living God to His words of life to Scripture; you can feed on those things. And as you do so, it says that what will happen is that literally, you will live. So what are you listening to? If you're listening to the wrong stuff, change it today.
Choose to stand
In one kings 19 Verse 13. Elijah is in this terrible place, and he's feeling miserable. You can tell because all of the sentences begin with “I”.
“I’m the only one left”; he is in a terrible place. But even in that place, he chooses to listen to the right voice. He takes action with it, and he goes and stands at the mouth of the cave. Even if your head is a mess, you can choose where you stand, and you can choose that today.
So my encouragement for you is that you contemplate the Lord’s glory, gaze upon him, and take time to listen to His voice and choose where you will stand today. I hope this is encouragement for you. I especially hope that you can choose to do these simple things if you are questioning your faith.
Father God, thank you that you love us, care for us, and know our hearts. I pray that you come and test our anxious thoughts. That you will lead us in the way that's everlasting and help us fix our gaze upon you. Help us to listen to you and that you help us stand in you.
In Jesus name. Amen.
God bless Mark and Meg Searle