This continues a series on contentment in chaos. If you missed the first post, you can view it, here.
It may sound easy to say that in order to be content we need to rest in our Father’s care, but you may be asking yourself “how do I do that?” Isaiah 26: 3 tells us how. In fact it tells us two things. First it says, that the one whose life is kept by the Father, is the one whose mind is stayed upon Him. And secondly, that this person is the one who trusts Him.
For this post, we’re going to tackle the idea of having our mind stayed upon God. The second part, trusting in Him, we will still with it in the next post.
It’s important to note that elsewhere this word “mind” is translated thoughts or intentions.
In other words, to rest in our Father’s care, our thoughts, our intentions and our plans must be focused on Him.
How do we do this? How do we get our thoughts and our plans to stay focus on our Heavenly Father, and therefore live contently?
Here are three things we need to do.
1) Guard our internal conversation
In I Peter 3:3-5 it states, ” Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. 5For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands,
What it means to have a gentle and quiet spirit?
We can see from these words that it is talking about something that happens internally. After all, our spirit is within us.
And we know that one of the ways that we gauge our spirit is the nature of our internal dialogue.
In other words, in order to have a gentle and quiet spirit, we need to be having fewer conversations with ourselves and more communion with Him.
A great way to track this is to see how many times our conversations are using personal pronouns, “me”, “I”, “we.” The less we’re using personal pronouns, the more likely it is that we are focusing not on ourselves but on Him.
2) We need to remember His acts of grace
Psalm 111:4 says “He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and merciful.
Read that carefully. It’s the Lord that causes His works to be remembered. So not only is He gracious, but by remembering how He has been gracious we experience His grace again. The recollection of His kindness is an act of grace. And it keeps our mind focused on Him.
3) We need to realize who’s in charge:
Ps. 103:14 states, “For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust”
The word “Frame” here is the same word in Isaiah 26:3 that’s translated mind.
So our mind is stayed upon God as we remember Him as Creator – the One who gets to call the shots, and not us.
God knows the purpose for which He created you, so we can trust in Him.
If we want to live with contentment in a chaotic world, we must rest in our Father’s care. How do we rest in our Father’s care? We must first fix our mind on Him. When we do this, by guarding our internal conversation, remembering His acts of grace, and realizing who’s in charge, we can trust in Him, and be content with what we have, and what’s to come.