Packed for the Trip?

Isaiah 33:6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.

I have a confession to make. Many years ago, when the dinosaurs roamed, I was a spiritually hungry teenager, ignorant of godly truths and fill with warped perceptions. I grew up to become a spiritually hungry adult, ignorant of godly truths and filled with warped perceptions. Not having been raised in church, my view on what constituted ‘church’ was limited to the occasional visit with a friend to their church. I decided along the way that the most ritualistic churches must be the most holy because they felt the most ‘churchy’.

FLASHBACK: My grandpa was a preacher and, from my young child’s perspective, I had no clue what that meant in the real sense of the word. I’d go to tent revivals with him in the hot Texas summers, so my view of all things ‘revival’ was colored by the heat, paper fans and kids running around making noise outside the big tent. Grandpa was a passionate preacher, I could tell, but I didn’t understand what that meant or the source of that passion. Remember, I wasn’t raised in church, so my foundation was very limited. I’m sure having his grandchildren ‘churchless’ was a great source of pain for my grandpa. The revivals weren’t ‘churchy’ in that ritualistic way, unless you count the ritual of dinner on the grounds. Somehow I never made the connection between the tent revivals and church. END of FLASHBACK.

The road on which I continue to make my spiritual journey is a long one and I won’t bore you with detail, but as that spiritually hungry adult donned her hiking boots and started out, she packed up a lot of her warped perceptions in her backpack for the trip. The ‘hunger’ for something spiritual and meaningful was powerful motivation. As I mentioned, the road has been long…it has also been rocky. Perhaps it is I, the walker, which is ‘rocky’. I have fallen more times than I can count since the journey began and found myself covered in blood, sweat and tears. More tears than anything.

Have you ever felt uneasy, unsettled or unstable? Or maybe a better question is — who hasn’t? How do we overcome these feelings?

This is what George Muller wrote in His diary on May 9, 1841:
"Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed…by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart."

The word faith in Hebrew is “emunah” (em-oo-nah). But interestingly, in the Hebrew Bible, the word stability in the verse above is also written “emunah”. Faith and stability are linked one to another. How do we become more stable and settled despite the circumstances and rocky roads surrounding our lives? By gaining faith. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

When we search for wisdom and gain knowledge in His word, we become more stable in our walk. Remember that trio of trouble, ‘uneasy, unsettled or unstable’, in the question above? We can rid ourselves of them as we empty our ‘backpacks of warped perceptions’. Jesus told us his burden is light. We are painfully aware trekking down the road on our spiritual journey with warped perceptions is not! They burden us with such things as guilt, disillusionment, unrealistic expectations, repeated sin, broken relationships, a spirit of un-forgiveness, bitterness, and legalism just to name a few.    

Let’s aim to spend more time in the Word, unpack the backpacks and gain more stability in our lives. Isaiah 33:6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.