(Picture by Karlie, edited by me)
I have been thinking on a verse for a few days now, wondering at it and asking the LORD to teach me from it....
“For thus said the LORD God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15)
Our Lord knows us, and He desires what is best for us!
Do you need strength to do what is required of you?
Are you feeling heavy-hearted, weighed down?
One of the LORD’s most precious words of love to us is sprinkled through out the Bible...return to Him. I am learning to say to my soul “Return to your Lover”. There are many things in a day that may distract me or cause me to “look” another way...may be a stress, or a problem, a worry, or struggle...so moment by moment I want to remind myself where I should be. Another thing is that when I am focusing on those stresses, problems, worries or struggles, I am most likely not feeling the “rest” that I am longing for. That is because I am trying to fix things and not submitting my heart and soul to Him who loves me...which is why I must first tell myself to “return” to the LORD because it is in Him and Him alone that I will find rest.
Here’s an example...
I am feeling troubled as a mother by some training issues with a few little ones. I feel tired and weary as I seek the best way to handle some things. However, if I tell myself to “return” to the LORD, I am not ignoring the problem, but I returning to Him with it, talking to Him about it, handling it FROM my relationship with Him, instead of handling it by myself. Obviously, this is a more restful place, because I am submitting willingly and lovingly to Him and I will find rest and be saved....
be saved from what? My own sins for one. Doing it My way; seeking what I want to happen in a particular situation; my expectations of what SHOULD happen. I can tell you from lots of experience (confession here), that when I am trying to get things the way I want them (even good things), I am not feeling so restful...it’s HARD to try to be god and solve the problems of my world!!! When I return to the LORD though, and make myself rest in Him, I can be sure that I will be saved!!!
HOWEVER, there is an important MORE in this verse;
Remember, I asked you (and me) if you need strength to do what is required?
Then we must also seek it IN quietness and IN trust.
Have you ever wanted a “white knight” to come in and save you and just solve all your problems? We all have!!!! I have always loved, LOVED these words that my dad has said to me many times in my life - “It’ll be all right”. What ever I was going through, I felt better because my dad had assured me that things would be O.K. I have come through a few hard things, as I know you have, and I can tell you, I hung onto those words spoken by my daddy like they were a life line. In fact, they mean so much to me that when we first were married, I was frustrated at Steve because he didn’t say those words to me when I needed to hear them...and I felt scared!!! He has learned, and I have even told him that I needed to hear him say that things would be O.K. See, I BELIEVED my dad when he said things would be ok...I trusted him, and I found strength to keep going.
We must be like that child in me that believed and stills believes that my dad can and will make things OK;
only we must believe it of our Heavenly Father. We must rely upon God with a holy confidence that He can do what He will and will do what is best. And this is our strength!
I called this post “Prescription For Joy” because I believe the LORD wants to fill us with His joy, and I believe we will begin to find that joy as we remind ourselves to “return” to the LORD, may be SEVERAL times a day (I have and do so almost hourly sometimes!!!).
Did you notice the two titles that I used for the LORD in this post?
Lover and Father.
That is the cry of my heart....to be loved by my Heavenly Lover and to be cared for by my Heavenly Father.
Let’s start returning....