I could take the time to catch you up on our coming and going this summer, but I won't do that.
What I will tell you is what God spoke over me one morning while we were on vacation last week.
I opened up the Word and my eyes fell on this scripture that was underlined in my Bible:
"Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation." Isaiah 33:6 NKJV
What God prompted me to do that day was to list things that I let rock the sure foundation or stability that I have in Him. My list included past sins, times of difficult or sickness, difficult relationships, fallen leaders, our country, the economy, anxiety and fear. What would your list look like?
Then He asked me to list things that I look to other than Him to be the strength of my salvation. I included good works, acts of service, pride in doing those things, feelings or emotions that seem to make me feel that He is close, gifts, blessings, perfectionism, our jobs, our things, our prestige and our power.
I then spent a few minutes remembering that His Word says that none of the things that I listed were ever meant to rock our sure foundation or our stability. They may rock our outward lives and circumstances, but our inner man, our spiritual foundation is sure when we have the wisdom and knowledge of God. But what does that look like?
The wisdom and knowledge of God is knowing His Word and therefore knowing His heart. When we know Him through His Word, it empowers us to fight and take captive every thought that tries to make us stumble or make us feel that we are no longer stable or secure. His Word reminds us of God's faithfulness and helps us believe Him for our present and our future. It exposes lies and replaces it with Truth. Our hearts are kept fully trusting Him regardless of the wasting away of the outward -- both our physical body and our earthly circumstances. Relying on the faithfulness of God and the truth found in His Word fosters in us a dependence on Him and takes the pressure off to be in control. The wisdom and knowledge of God casts away anxiety and fear.
Isaiah 12:2 tells us to constantly remind ourselves of this:
"Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation."
Isaiah 51:6 reminds us that this earth is fleeting and the things that we allow to rock us and paralyze us with fear has an end, but what He has promised is sure and it is eternal:
"Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail."
This place we so casually call our home is not that at all. It is faulty. It is fleeting. It is not forever. While we temporarily call it home, we don't have to dwell in it.
No, the place where we dwell is this:
"No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise. The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory." Isaiah 60:18-19
This world looks like chaos, confusion, godlessness, and fear. But you, my friend, as a beloved child of God dwell in a House whose walls are Salvation, gates that are Praise, illuminated with the Light that is the LORD and surrounded by Glory that is your God!
This is the stability of your times and the strength of your salvation.
Blessings,
Dori
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