A Gentle and Quiet Spirit

This morning I was talking with my soon to be husband about our church’s Meditation for Preparation to get ready for the gathering. It’s a short reading and some questions that our pastor sends to all of the members of our church to help us get our minds right.

Scriptures for this Sunday:
Read Psalm 11. Where does David say the Lord is in the midst of your troubles? Does the Lord see or care for your concerns? Does your life reflect that truth?

As I thought through these questions, I couldn’t say that I always run to God in the midst of my troubles, even when being reassured by His word that “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes everyone on earth; his eyes examine them.” (Psalm 11: 4)

We discussed that it’s so difficult to be consistent with the way we trust God. Personally, I find myself doing either of two things: 1.) running towards God or 2.) away from him and turning to myself for help. The pattern for my own life seems to be that I turn to God with life’s “bigger” things, but tend to want to trust myself for smaller things. I think my reasoning is that the big things feel more out of control and daunting –I believe that I can control what I eat for lunch but I am more aware that I can’t find a job or sustain a marriage on my own. The truth is, though, that I can no more control the small seemingly insignificant life events any more than I can control whether or not it rains or whether or not I get into a car accident driving on I-275.  All of it is controlled by a very sovereign and all-powerful God.

Reflecting on these questions did something really important for my forgetful mind this morning. It reminded me of a simple yet day-changing and life-changing truth. “The Lord is on his heavenly throne.” This ought to change the way I approach things.

We’re either fixing our eyes on the transient things around us or on a never-changing God. Our eyes are fixed on something. But think about it, it is much more difficult to fix your eyes on a moving target than on something secure. It’s exhausting really. When I try to keep my eyes on the temporary things around me, it mostly just results in confusion and a lot of unrest. My mind is constantly swimming and trying to keep up with where my eyes should be. But when my gaze is steady on God, I can just keep my eyes on one place. I know that no matter what, I can keep my eyes anchored to the one who is on His throne and never leaves his throne. There’s no guessing or trying to find where he is. He tells us exactly where He is and where He will remain.