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.

A few days ago I was blissfully walking out to my new garden bed when I was accosted with that ominous rattle that stopped me in my tracks.  I couldn’t see it, but watched my drip line explode with its movement as it went into hiding.

Well this brought fears from my past to the surface!  As a result, I’ve been meditating on verses to help me conqueror this long standing stronghold of fear.  Instead of the word “sin” I have inserted “fear.”  Romans 6:2, saying “…How shall I who died to fear live any longer in it?”  Colossians 3:3, saying “For I died to fear, and my life is now hidden with Christ in God.”  You can insert what binds you to your past.

This morning when I woke up the Holy Spirit spoke these words to my heart: People who live in the past miss the grace available for the present.  The fears from our past chain us to our past so we can’t go forward.  There is a phrase from an old hymn: the sins that bound me, bind me no more.

Isaiah 42:9 says, “Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”  Isaiah 43:18-19 says, “Do not remember the former thing, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it?  I will even made a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

Last night I was meditating on Hebrews 5:8.  How do we learn obedience through the things we are suffering?  Obedience is a submitted will which is true humility.  Our suffering is something that God has allowed, so our will needs to be submitted to that.

2 Corinthians 10:4 says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.”  Our flesh is a stronghold because it opposes God’s will.  Humility is our greatest weapon against our flesh.  It is coming in an opposite spirit.  Humility defeats pride.

Suffering in our flesh allows our spirit deeper communion.  Our flesh is subdued in the crucible, but our spirit thrives.  Our spirit thrives when our flesh suffers.  We “kill” our flesh when we humbly submit to His will.

Hebrews 5:8 says, “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”  Matthew Henry says: We need affliction to teach us submission.

1 Peter 4:1 says, “Therefore since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.”  In verse two I am picking up the highlights: that he …should live…for the will of God.

I’ve been meditating on this phrase from Romans 5:21: so grace might reign through righteousness.  We are never more humble then when our purpose, thoughts, and actions are conformed through obedience to the will of God, which then allows grace to reign triumphant in our lives.

2 Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

Do the people you meet in the marketplace sense the fragrance of His presence in your life?  Did the gal I talked to yesterday at Farmer’s Market encounter a new fragrance that awakened her heart?

Here is the first verse of a song the Holy Spirit gave me April 2003

Your Embrace

Your presence O Lord is what I long for

To feel Your embrace as You hold me close

The fragrance of Your life permeates every particle of my being

As I rest in the arms of Your love