So many voices...

I read this verse this morning, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3

There are so many voices going out right now declaring “this is good, and this is bad, and you can trust this, but don’t trust that.” It is all very confusing and most of us feel as if we are in the spin cycle of our washing machine.

I’m here with you, in circumstances that I never believed I would be in. Facing giants that seem immovable, and with the whispers of fear always surrounding and begging me to embrace them. AND YET… I continue to stand because God’s way will always prevail!

Now to clarify…

God’s way is not always our perspective of how things should be, or what feels comfortable to us. His way does not involve convincing the world that you were right and that He is on your side. His way involves us being surrendered to His leading and being willing to lay things down in order for us to be free from bondage, and able to receive what He actually wants us to carry. Many times the path that is laid before us, leads us through the valleys of pain in order to give us something that we could not have received any other way.

So, are we willing to continue to follow and trust the process, believing whole-heartedly that what is on the other side is something beautiful, that needs our journey in order to be released to us?

Or do we fight tooth and nail to hold onto the way that we believe things should be?

On one side you have obedience that says, ‘I may not like this, but I’ll still do it, because that’s where You are, Jesus, and I just want to be where You are’.

And on the other side, you have rebellion, and an unwillingness to move, which means, you will get nowhere in your intimacy with God. You will stay stuck where you are and will either walk away or create theologies that allow you to “feel the presence” of God, but in all reality, having no true relationship.

We must always be asking ourselves, and asking the Lord to reveal: Is what I’m doing right now, leading me on the path to growth or the path to comfort?

Jesus’ message was, “Die to yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. Turn the other cheek. Submit to authorities. In this life you will have trouble. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

None of this sounds good to our comfort or our flesh, but it is His words!

Therefore…

Are we in alignment with His call for those who would follow? It is only on this path that we get to experience perfect peace, because on this path, our trust in Him is proven, and when trust is proven, True love exists.

The Lord gave me this progression earlier this week.

1. When we are hurt, if we are self-focused about our pain, then we will naturally be fearful of it happening again, and we will begin to do things that would guard us from pain, but this is based out of a motive of fear.

2. If we have invited fear into our decision making and ultimately our lives, then perfect love can not exist.

3. If perfect (completed, or mature) love does not exist within us, then we naturally will not be able to hear the voice of God clearly. In addition, if He asks us to go a way that appears uncomfortable we will easily be deceived into believing that it wasn’t His voice.

=Deception follows fear, which follows a wound that was not healed properly, through the leading and perspective of Jesus.

And this, friend, is how deception takes a hold of us and whispers all of its disgusting reasoning about the need to control your life and your world.

Jesus didn’t control His life, He at multiple times admitted that He was only doing the will of His Father.

Jesus didn’t control His world, He rebuked Peter, who tried to stand in the way of His torture and death, believing that Jesus was there to take over and destroy the Roman Empire.

So, we have a choice, we either choose to follow the real Jesus and surrender and submit to His Lordship over our lives, or go it on our own, but may we not ever create a false Jesus that would be a puppet and genie to us and our comfort. This would truly be a tragedy.

I lay my life down today, in the midst of all that is going on, and surrender to His path through this storm. And I ask you to join me. The Prince of Peace will carry us through, I have no doubts of this, but we must be His, our minds must be stayed on Him, and we must trust Him and His plan and path alone!

The true blessing in an adventure, with all its joys and perils, is the companion who stood with you through it all, who never once left your side.

Don’t focus this week on the details, God promised to take care of and work those out, focus on Jesus standing right beside you. You turn to Him and He smiles and says, “We got this!”