Last night I was meditating on “do not turn aside” from 1 Samuel 12:21.  It says, “And do not turn aside, for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.”

We are not to turn aside from trust to worry.  Worry is futile and bears no fruit.  Trust bears the fruit of righteousness.

We give ground over to satan through worry (Ephesians 4:27).  Each time our mind wanders into worry, we need to bring it back to trust.   Trust is standing on the ground of truth and remaining there in confidence.  We stand in the truth of Who He is.  We cling to Him in trust.  It speaks of  guarding our thoughts with diligence and tenacity.  Cling means to hold with a refusal to let go.

For two nights I’ve been meditating on “observe to do” from Joshua 1:8.  It means to be very attentive as we are meditating.  Asking questions like: What does this word mean?  How can I make it active in my life?   It is like squeezing the juice out of a lemon.  We want to get it all.

James 1:24 says about the man who is observing his face in a mirror.  “For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets…”  Verse 25 says, “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”   The Amplified says, “…being not a heedless listener who forgets, but an active doer (who obeys)…”  It is a perfect illustration of meditating to observe to do.  I just never put Joshua 1:8 with James 1:25 before and wanted to share this with you.

Hebrews 10:35, “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.”  Worry undermines confidence because our focus is on our ability.  Confidence strengthens our inner man because our focus is on His ability.

Verse 36 goes on to say that we have need of endurance.  Confidence helps us endure.

Psalm 84:7 says, “They go from strength to strength…”  They are continually strengthened through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Confident that He will be our strength in each circumstance.  Confident that He will give us the wisdom we need.  Confident that His grace is abounding.

Never waver from the truth of who He is at all times in our lives.

Colossians 1:11 says, “Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious pwer, for all patience and long-suffering with joy.”  Infused with His strength in our innermost being.

Trials develop character for those who are trained by them.  Hebrews 12:11 says, “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.”

Worry blocks the training because we are so distracted we miss His higher purpose.

Worry is a distraction used by the enemy to pull our focus off the Lord, and so agitate our minds that we can’t hear His whispered words.

Worry is a temptation that we can resist by standing in truth.  It is when we let it dwell in our thoughts that it negatively affects our spirit, soul, and body.

Last night I was meditating on “prepare your minds for action” from 1 Peter 1:13.

We get good instruction from 2 Samuel 5:24.  David had asked the Lord what to do when the Philistines deployed themselves.  He acted on the Lord’s instructions (verse 19).  Then the same scene enfolds. Again the Philistines deploy themselves.  David didn’t act according to the first instructions.  He asked the Lord again.  This time the Lord told him not to go up, but to wait in front of the mulberry trees.  Verse 24 says, “And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly.  For then the Lord will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.”

David and his men had to stay focused, to be alert, to listen attentively, to be ready, and to not get distracted.  So it is with us.  We need to shore up our thoughts, and quiet our hearts so we can hear and advance quickly.

Last night I was meditating on Isaiah 26:3 which says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind in stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”  Trust squeezes out disquiet.

Disquiet means: a feeling of anxiety, unease, concern, perturbed, upset, agitation, restlessness, fretfulness.  Matthew 6:25 Amplified says, “Stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life…”

When we are disquieted our trust is under attack.  We are being tempted to lean on our own understanding.  Don’t let your thoughts stray.  Keep them corralled.  Our flesh searches and probes for answers, but His Spirit leads us into truth through insight.

1 Corinthians 2:10 Amplified says, “…for the (Holy) Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny).”

Here is an acrostic for trust that He showed me many years ago: To Rest Under Sore Trial

I was meditating on Jeremiah 17:7 which says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.”  Matthew Henry: It is to make the Lord our hope, His favor the good we hope for, and His power the strength we hope in.  They shall be fixed in an inward peace and satisfaction.

Most of the time hope is spoken of in His word as eternal, yet hope can speak of trust.

The Lord gives us wise solutions, yet our hope is not to be in the solution but on Him for the outcome.  Our hope is to be in Him and our expectation is to watch His work unfold without stressing but maintaining inner peace.

We pray specifically for our need, but leave the outcome totally up to Him so that He is glorified.

Isaiah 61:1 says that Jesus came to heal broken hearts.  He uses broken vessels to display His power and His light.  We miss His higher purpose when we try to cover our brokenness.

2 Corinthians 4:7 says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”

It isn’t a sin to be broken.  It’s a sin when we hide our brokenness, and try to appear to be something we are not.  Our coverup resists God’s higher purpose.  Let His light shine through your brokenness and He will get the glory.

The Holy Spirit just gave me an insight that I want to share with you.  This insight is like gold, or a precious jewel of high value.

When a sinful thought, such as fear or anger passes through your mind, it is a fiery dart.  It is a temptation to sin.  We are dead to sin, therefore we have no response.  Let your next thought be praise, then refocus on the Lord.  Praise is the transition from thought to truth.  Truth will help us stand, and it is the truth that sets us free.