My Commander, if I choose

I went for a walk today to work on making a much-needed mental shift and effort to connect with God and consider His Word.

Back in 2005, I typed up these verses and have kept them with me at work. I took them on my walk with me.

- Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart. I will see the goodness of the Lord.

- The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still.

- In quietness and trust is your strength.

- The battle belongs to the Lord.

- Blessed is the man who puts his trust in the Lord.

- Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

- ...until you arrive in the place of rest the Lord will give to you.

- There is a full complete rest still waiting for the people of God.

- (a line from a gospel song) Will you trust me or will you fear?

Things that came to mind on my walk:

- My habit of late has not been to wait, nor to wait for the Lord, not to look to the Lord to fight for me.

- In some cases, I have denied that there is a battle. By my actions, I have aligned with and settled in with the enemy. While I should be viewing the enemy as my enemy and acting according to how God would have me deal with enemies, I have taken wrong sides.

- In recognizing a battle, I need to hold back and look to God. In contrast, I have been entering some battles with weapons of my choosing and with decisions of my own about how to go about the battle and for what ends. By my actions, I convey that I have not considered God as the Lord in this battle but am operating without the Lord. My agitation and fear are reminders that I'm not operating in quietness and trust in the Lord.

I've got work to do.

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What's the purpose of observing a low point such as this? My thinking: those who are doing just fine don't need encouragement. Those in a slump sure need it more, sure need that ray of hope, that nudge in the right direction. Reflecting on my own nudge in the right direction--surely there is someone else out there who finds themself in a slump and thoughts like these may be timely. I'll be out of the slump. It's in that expectation that I write and encourage my fellow traveler.