June 10, 2012
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! -- Isaiah 26: 3 (NLT)
Lord, I don't understand. I don't get it. What used to make sense to me doesn't add up anymore. The valley just goes deeper and deeper. I made the righteous stand for You and Your Word. I fought the flesh desires to stay where I knew You didn't want me to stay. I was obedient to Your call. Each day passes and it seems like I understand less and less. I see the ways of the wicked prosper all around me. I see those who did not take a stand for righteousness thrive and profit; even from their disobedience. I continue to see those who wrap themselves up in Your Name without being close to Your heart. I just want to serve You. Serving You should not be this hard"
Anyone ever feel some of this in their walk? Doubt, uncertainty, remorse? The sense that you are doing the right thing, making the right stand, even obedient as the flesh can be -- yet still wandering in the valley searching for some light. Searching for the way out. It is a dangerous place to be beloved because the enemy will play with our minds in these conditions. He will try and get us to doubt what we know in our Spirit as being right. I know this valley well and when I asked for a verse today for encourgament, God gave me Isaiah 26: 3. The key verse deals with the two most important things we must master when we are seeking peace. And that is really what we are talking about here. We are talking about the peace of God resting upon our lives so that regardless of how deep the valley goes -- we know it is of the Lord. A peace that transcends all human understanding and allows us to carry on. Allows us to step out of the boat in the middle of our storms and walk on water. Allows us the confidence of knowing that God is the God of the mountaintop and the valley. The devil can whisper in our ears all day long and it will not matter when we are draped in that peace. When that peace envelops us -- there is no power the enemy has to sway us. That is what we all so desperately need, especially in the valley. Especially when we are unsure. Especially when it just seems to go deeper.
The first thing we need to make sure of is our faith. In what do we believe? In whom do we believe? How big is the God we serve? That may sound trite but realize today that God is only as big as your faith allows Him to be in your life. If your God is big enough for your job situation but not for your marriage then you can expect trouble in your marriage. Imagine the scene facing Israel when Goliath challenged them. The giant was nine feet tall and all of the men of Israel were cowering in fear; including Saul the king. Into the camp of scared men walks a teenage boy named David and here is what he had to say:
David asked the soldiers standing nearby, "What will a man get for killing this Philistine and ending his defiance of Israel? Who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?" -- 1Samuel 17: 26 (NLT)
David had peace about who his God was. He knew his God was bigger than nine feet tall. He knew that his God was bigger than Goliath. The way the verse reads we also see that David knew that Goliath was a pagan while David was a child of God. These realizations provided David with the inner peace he needed to be able to face the giant before him. When we are faced with the deep valley we too can have two choices in how to react. We can react like the men of Israel and cower in fear, doubt and uncertainty. Let's face it -- some of the giants we face today are really big! They might be taller than nine feet! They stand over us in intimidating fashion and scare us -- shake our faith. Or we can react like David and remember who God is in our life. Remember how big God is in our life. To the men of Israel that day -- Goliath was bigger than the God they served. This too can happen very easily to us as well. Things in our walk can become overwhelming to us. We can start trumping our problems up to be larger than the God we serve and that is also a very dangerous place to be. The key verse makes it very plain -- the first step to perfect peace is in trusting in who God is. The Psalmist teaches us:
Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. -- Psalm 119: 105 (NLT)
Why does God only provide a lamp for our feet and a light for our path? Shouldn't we be able to see everything? No -- because true faith needs only to see the next step God has for us. If God showed us everything He has for us, we would be too scared to leave our room! True faith is taking God at His Word for who He is and continuing on the path He has laid out regardless of how deep the path takes us into the valley. Why? Because the valley is not what is important -- God is! The depth of the valley is not what is relevant -- God is! The size of the giant before you is not what matters but rather the size of God inside of you! Faith in who we serve is always the first step towards walking in the perfect peace of Almighty God.
The other step is our thought life. It doesn't do us any good to honestly believe by faith how great our God is and then proceed to never think about it! Look at the key verse -- perfect peace is attained when we fix our eyes upon Him! Sounds simply but remember the enemy loves to distract us. The men of Israel that day were distracted by the size of the giant. When Peter stepped out of the boat he was able to walk on water because he fixed his eyes upon Jesus but the Bible says that when he became distracted by the storm all around him -- he began to sink in his own circumstances. We too can become easily distracted by the storms that surround us. And do not think for a second that the devil does not realize this. That the storms will intensify. The wind will pick up. The rain will become harsher. Anything to get our mind off of our God and onto our circumstances. That is the strategy for the enemy. He doesn't want us looking to our God. He wants us looking to our valley. Looking to the problems we face. Today we must realize that looking at our problems does not solve them. Looking to our problem solver however"that is where miracles lay waiting to happen. So the battle is rooted in faith but is won in our thought life:
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me--everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. -- Philippians 4: 8-9 (NLT)
Then who will be with you? The God of peace! How? By fixing our thoughts! Realize that we usually have no control over the fact that we are in the valley but we certainly can control what we think about while we are walking through! If we focus on the uncertainty then we will heighten our sense of being doubtful. If we focus on our fears then we will heighten our apprehension about where we are. But if we focus on the God we serve"
We will realize that He is bigger
than whatever valley we find ourselves in. He is the author of our story and
this valley is part of the grand story He is writing. He is in control. We must
be responsible for two things to bring His perfect and transcendent peace upon
us. First we must believe in whom He is and what He can do and secondly, we
need to think about those things and not the circumstances around us. I am not
suggesting this is always easy or that I have mastered it either. This is
merely the blueprint for peace in the valley. We must always strive for what
God has outlined for us. Faith and focus = peace.
Rev. Anthony
