Get off the Train! In His Word 1-16-23
Lately life has seemed like a train ride where things keep
going by so fast I can barely see them before they are gone. It can be
stressful and so I seek peace. So before getting to the scriptures themselves
let me say this is what I learned. To seek peace first I have to 1) Seek God.
That will give us spiritual peace. 2) Clean up my act and change my attitudes.
That gives us physical peace. Then 3)Keep it up or repeat these two steps!
The scriptures below tell us to keep deceitful talk from our
mouths, to get away from evil or bad influences and do good first into the
Physical section of seeking peace!
Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. Psalm 34:13-15
When life gets out of control, and we don’t know what to do about it instead of having anxious thoughts we need to seek God, and find peace through Him. You just read it, "pursue peace!" Sometimes you have to chase it down, work at finding peace.
Sometimes it feels like you are on a really fast train when your thoughts are full of anxiousness and anxiety grips you, a train that you cannot find the exit to get off, and it does not seem to be stopping soon. Everything in life whirrs by so fast it becomes a blur. Nothing makes sense but you cannot seem to stop the thoughts. Even when you turn around the other way, it can feel like a treadmill! Like when you are walking on a train the opposite direction. Sometimes we get caught up in the things that are passing us by, or maybe worry about what we need, but do not have the time to get, or the means in which to get it. When we are anxious about things the train seems to go faster! We can't go to the store because we have to go to work, but after work it's too late to go to the store so we don’t have the food we need to make the meal, so we eat whatever there is that is never enough and so we cannot sleep because we know we have to get up early and go to the store before work so we can have food the next day. But then, we get up and realize there is no way to do that. So we wander on the treadmill until we finally realize we need to pull the wire and make it all stop!
Seek God. When life feels like this, seek Him. Ask
Him for help, for peace, for hope, for direction.
For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your
heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own
trouble. Matthew 6:32-34
Clean up our thinking. His Word tells us that we do
not need to worry about tomorrow. His Word tells us the truth, that God has it
all figured out and all we should really do is ask for help from Him. We need to read more seek Him, seek peace.
Find God in the moment.
“And do not seek what
you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world
seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the
kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. “Do not fear,
little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Luke 12:22-34
Keep it up! Stop
allowing the words to flow that cause the train to keep going. Back in the day they would pull a rope or a wire and it
would cause the train to be halted to let people get off, did you know that?
We do not have to worry anymore about the food, the time,
the sleep or lack of it. I will tell you
a secret, the dark hours are when I get flooded with the train rushing. All the
things I need to do, or did not do come to mind when I am trying to sleep. One
day I realized the rope for me was to pray for others. So instead of just
allowing the enemy to taunt me and shame me, I pray for everyone I can think of
and battle the feelings and the lack of control. I often have to pray for myself
as well but eventually, I drift off to sleep.
It is not always right away, but eventually, once I pray the prayer for
the person who I was still awake to pray for I think, I fall into a nice restful
sleep. Then I wake up and it is a new
day.
Now if you try this, don’t allow yourself to worry about how
short the hours were, just thank God that you made it to the new day and keep
the peace!
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah, the Lord,
is everlasting strength. Isaiah 26:3-4
Remind yourself of the scriptures above, or look up some
others to keep your mind stayed on Him. Cause God will keep us in perfect peace
when we keep our minds focused on Him. Think about it, if you are allowing the
Holy Spirit to occupy your thoughts, the enemy will have no place for the anxious
ones!
Heavenly Father, Help us to keep our minds on You and Your
Word and not to allow ourselves to get caught up on the train of doubt or fear.
Help us to give you control of our anxious thoughts through prayer and give us
peace that passes understanding, in Jesus’ name. Amen.