Repentance and rest

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” Isaiah 30:15

We are in some interesting times. I watch the news for perhaps a total of 15 minutes a week. I can still hold a great conversation regarding current events with probably anyone. I just choose not to spend 60 minutes a day being fed a stream of depressing, alarming, and negative “pre-digested food” from the news networks. Regardless, it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to believe we may be in the end times. We certainly are witnessing a plethora of events that we have never seen before in our lifetimes, or in all of history. Our national debt is  $ 14,571,655,073,214. To put that in perspective, that means $46,024.33 for every citizen of the United States.  14.5 “trillion dollars”, that’s 14.5 million million dollars.

Depressing huh.

Yet we are to live our lives and glorify God with joy and hope and live with “...the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.” (Philippians 4:7) I am in the process of writing a book about this peace that I believe is about a timely a message as we can have for today. I am discovering how as I go. I have not arrived there yet myself where I would say I have a peace that is all encompassing. But I can say that I have more peace than I have had in a few years. I have a confidence that is illustrated well by the following song by Lincoln Brewster.

I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Matthew 6:34 says this:“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

God gave Philippians 3:12-14 to my family at the beginning of this year:  ^“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength…” …and I WILL HAVE ALL OF IT!!!

Take Heart

The following is from a daily devotional that I read titled, “The One Year at His Feet Devotional by Chris Tiegreen.”

Seeds are buried in the ground. Caterpillars are contained in a cocoon. Grain is pummeled into flour. But each one has a higher purpose and another world to experience or function to fulfill. So do we. We can easily make the mistake of thinking that God’s primary purpose for us is a matter of our lifetime on earth. But the Kingdom is the main event. Like the seeds, the caterpillars, and the grain, we are in an elemental form, being shaped by the Father for a greater, lasting purpose. The world is the arena in which we are trained. As God shapes us for His kingdom, He uses many means. One of them is the tribulation our world naturally dishes out. But our trouble is not meaningless; we can take heart. Peace is found in seeing beyond the training ground that so often distresses us. It is found in placing all hopes in the One who overcomes the world.