"Stayed Upon Jehovah" (Where is Your Mind At?)

Greetings! Grace, peace, and mercy be upon you. :) Fall is finally here! It is my favorite season. I know it represents death but I also do remember that life can come out of death.

SO....
I've been meditating and praying about a post and feel that this is the one that God laid on my heart to write about. So here it goes...

                                    "STAYED UPON JEHOVAH"

Have you ever sung the hymn, "Like A River Glorious"?
It was written by Frances R. Havergal. The lyrics are as follows:

1. Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace,
   Over all victorious, in its bright increase;
   Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day,
   Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.
   
   • Refrain:
     Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
     Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.
2. Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
   Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
   Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
   Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.
3. Every joy or trial falleth from above,
   Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
   We may trust Him fully, all for us to do;
   They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.

It's a good hymn that is based off of Isaiah 26:3-4 which says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:"

You probably just sing the hymn, read the verses and not even think about what amazing truth that really is! It is so very true. When your mind is focused and stayed upon The Lord Jesus Christ then you will have a peace which passeth all understanding and find that trusting God is easier. You can only experience this by actually implementing it into your daily life. Begin by building your life around Jesus rather then trying to fit Him into it. Then as you start to be completely consumed with Christ you will start to have no trouble staying your mind on Him.

How much do you really love God?
About a month ago God convicted me with a very simple but very profound thought (that I had thought about before and been taught by my Dad but God was just driving it home to me again): You are to love God with ALL your MIND, ALL your HEART, ALL your STRENGTH, ALL your SOUL, ALL your BODY.    ALL means ALL.  Are you loving God with all your mind if it's consumed with anything and everything but HIM? Of course not!

Matthew 22: 37, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."

What consumes your mind? Cares of this life? worries? thoughts of a certain guy? emotions? impure thoughts? food? sports? money?
You know what it is. When you fall asleep at night what are you really thinking about?
You should ALWAYS start your day with The Lord (I almost always wake up and say, "Good Morning" to my precious Jesus). You should ALWAYS end your day with Jesus. And you should ALWAYS fill your day with Jesus. So, in other words, you should be CONSUMED with Christ ALL day long, 24/7.  When you're working, pray, sing, quote Bible verses you're memorizing, meditate on Him. No matter what you're doing incorporate Christ into it. Practice being in His presence! Psalm 16:11 (one of my favorite verses) says, " Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

I have this little problem of critiquing and analyzing everything almost to a fault. I think it's the "artist" in me ("The distance between their eye and eyebrow are so strange! And that nose shape is so neat looking."   "That hair color goes good with that eye color."   " That eye shape is really peculiar."   "The way she smiles is the same smile I drew of such-n-such." etc. etc.).  It's a little weird even to myself. If I'm voicing it out loud then I'm sure it's annoying to others! So I usually don't. I've talked to other artists and found this is not just partial to me. I think you turn into a critiquing monster when you draw portraits of people! I mean everyone has their own unique look and you just have to figure out why that person looks the way they do.  ha ha.

I also like to judge people's character by subtly watching them in different scenarios and seeing how they react (If you let the door slam in my face, you are slothful in your praying, you don't like to be around children, you're bored during a sermon, you're stressed out, you are never quick to help, or you're making a certain face during an important discussion, I will most likely notice it. Sorry).  It kind of runs in my family as my Dad and sisters usually always see the same things I notice (We'll give each other "that look" which means, "Yes. I saw it."). Actually I think I annoy people because I'm always saying, "Yeah. I noticed." When they'll be telling me a story of something embarrassing (or whatever) that happened.  

So, because of that, if I am not focusing my mind on The Lord (and making sure I judge righteous judgment as well) then I can get all wrapped up in nothingness and lose sleep, sanity, and soundness of mind. Let your meditations be sweet meditations of the Lord and then you can sleep in peace.
I can also be a "day dreamer" type of a person but you've got to learn to tunnel those dreams into reality and not meditating on vain nonsense.

We were just at a little King James Bible revival meeting thing and boy was I watching to see how this generation is doing! I'm very curious to see what people get consumed with. Here's how one morning in their fellowship hall for breakfast went...

I'm sitting at a table with some ladies of our church eating some ridiculously good biscuits and melt in your mouth bacon, drinking awesome coffee, and trying to read my Bible as 100 other conversations are taking place around me. I finally give up for a second and decide to tune into the conversations around me. The ladies at my table are eating and talking about stuff (you know the "Mom stuff", babies, diets, Bible reading finds, and awesome husbands). The table ahead of me contains my Dad and guys from my church so I hear my Dad bringing up extremely interesting Bible subjects, doctrine, new found revelations, and stories that I've heard a thousand times but could still hear a thousand more times. I then tune into the conversation directly behind me which just so happens to be a bunch of guys from that church. Was it good? Sorry. But I was completely disgusted as they talked about the fact that some of them have 2 girl friends going on at once; who likes who; how they were trying to fathom the fact that the one "ugly guy" some how managed to snag a girl (they made him swear to God that he had one!); and sports idolatry at it's finest. Totally sickened I decide to listen in on the girls table (from that church) right next to me and -conveniently- almost right next to the guy table. What do I hear? You guessed it. Boys, who likes who, and vain gossip nonsense. Going back to reading my Beloved Bible I can only be saddened by the state of this generation. So sad.
Minds consumed with Christ? I think not.

God will give peace but it only comes through a full surrender to the one who will make everything right. You can trust God! He IS big and capable of accomplishing Mighty things. He also knows what is best for us so you just need to quit thinking you know better and leave your cares with Him. 1 Peter 5: 7 says, "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you."

 Matthew 11: 28- 30 reads, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

And after leaving it there with God don't go trying to take it back into your own hands again! Not a wise thing to do at all.

Psalm 119:165 says, "Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them."

I wrote a poem called "Give Peace" to The Lord one time when I really needed some peace. It goes:
" I know you command me to be still
  As the storm rages in my soul.
  I wait, dear God, on you
  Please give me peace to console.

My mind is filled with wonderings
I give my will up with a prayer.
My heart bleeds blood of loneliness.
Oh God, on you I cast my care!

I need your peace to consume me,
I need your love to enclose me,
I need your faith to encourage me.
Dear Lord, I will be still.

Why do I not trust you?
My own flesh is just so weak.
Fill me with your strong Spirit.
And in my patience give peace."

Learn to be still and let God fight for you. Learn to have that "meek and quiet spirit";  You should have a quiet countenance as well. If you have peace and joy and contentment it will show.

Stress, chaos, and worries are not for the Christian! There is no peace to the wicked but to the Christian there is! Why not ask for it? 

Learn to be still and trust. God will give you happiness when you trust (ask me how I know!).

Psalm 146:5, 'Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God:"

He can also give you hope.

Ask God to "fix your heart" on Him. I did that and have found that He has answered! Such a peace.

Psalm 57:7, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise."

Psalm 108:1, "O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory."

Psalm 112: 7, "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord."

WARNING: NO DOUBLEMINDEDNESS! If you decide to fix on God then stay fixed.

Stay on Him!

Isaiah 50:10, "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God."

Psalm 18:18, "They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay."

Jesus is our peace! Eph. 2:14, "For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;"

Seek after peace; seek after Jesus.



A couple months ago I composed a song entitled "Peace, Be Still" here are the lyrics:

1)  As the storm around me rages And the enemy draws near

My faith is being shaken As I'm attacked by doubts unclear.

My soul feels the torment of plaguing thoughts of fear

But then I hear a strong command, "Peace, be still."

(REFRAIN):

And it's my Prince of Peace! He caused the storms to cease.

Jesus broke down the wall and spoke words of good cheer.

For He is our peace; He sets our minds at ease.

And He speaks to my soul, "Peace, be still."

2) Thou wilt keep Him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee

Through the gospel of peace I can fight the enemy.

Be still and know that He is God; trusting faithfully.

Oh listen to His Voice, "Peace, be still."

Well I better be getting off of here. I can only be on a computer for a certain amount of time before I'm totally sick of it! The lighting gives me a headache for some reason.... (Praise God).

2 Thess. 3:16, "Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all."

Be blessed! The Lord's Lover,

Hope Jerusalem

P.S. "Jerusalem" means "City of Peace". *smile*