Turning aside...

Exodus 3:1-5 (The Amplified Bible)

1NOW MOSES kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back or west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb or Sinai, the mountain of God. 2The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, yet was not consumed.
3And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.
4And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here am I.
5God said, Do not come near; put your shoes off your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.

This is a season of 'turning aside' for me. My 'shoes' that I need to take off is a heart of heaviness that I am tired of carrying. Yesterday, I emailed a friend to pray for me. She did. God directed me to listen to Beth Moore on Life Today. Her words spoke straight to me. Here is the gist of the parts that resonated from Part 1-3. (You may listen to it in its entirety here, a series called "Who Do You Trust?")

Well, what got my attention was "Aren't you tired of all this pain?"

Uh-huh...yeah.

...'cept I did not relate it to distrust of God. Huh?

Beth said that distrust of God is manifested in 2 ways primarily:

1. a persistently ailing heart. (heaviness..pain...enough!)

2. a spewing mind. (old hurts replaying ..stop it!)

And, guess what has been plaguing me of late?

So, Beth definitely had my ear! The foundational verse:

Isaiah 26:3 (The Holy Bible, NIV Version)

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast,

because he trusts in you.

She follows with Deuteronomy 1:28-32 (21st Century KJV) where the Israelites were faced with fighting the Amorites and fear overtook them. God said:

32.Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God,

even after He had gloriously delivered them from the Egyptians, yet in this thing...

Faith in the New Testament is related to knowing with the mind, but Beth says that in the Old Testament, faith is tied in with the heart and mind. Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart...". Psalm 28:7 says "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped."

But I know that faith says I must believe regardless, so I 'say' it, but why can't I feel it in my heart?

Beth suggests that there are some areas in our heart that are so broken, we say, "God is not going to do this for us, so we have to carry it.."

Any place that our minds are not steadfast is a place where we distrust God.

For example, Beth's beginning history with child sexual abuse left her with the notion that her looks, her desirability was her 'value'. So as she gets older, and her 'looks' 'get older' too, she began to question her value. For others, it might be their marriage and the fear it will break up, or perhaps finances, that you will lose all. Fill in the blank here to determine the root of your greatest fear:

"You are valuable if you are ______".

And guess what? Satan knows that 'fear' and keeps threatening us with it. His goal is to incapacitate us with a 'spewing mind'. When we disconnect from God's help in this area, we lower our shield and Satan 'hits' us time and time again. If your fear is regarding your childrens' well-being, something like a small bump on the head raises irrational fears like.."What is that?!"

So we tell God, "this can't happen...I could never survive this.." and if it, our nightmare, does happen, our relationship with God, who obviously 'misbehaved' here, goes to pieces. Beth says, "It is not enough to trust God that that which we fear most is not going to happen."

Psalm 112:7-8 says, "He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. 8 His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes.

Our trust must take us to the point that if my nightmare does happen, you can look to God and say, "For You to allow this to happen, You must have glorious purpose, therefore I must trust..." We forget that God's purpose is not to make life 'easy' for us, but to give our life meaning and purpose, to minister to others who live in fear of that particular 'nightmare' coming true.

Paul, in all his struggles, says in 1 Timothy 1:12, "That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day."

God says, I AM your all-surpassing power in your jar of clay.(2 Corinthians 4:7).

The very area where you are most tempted to distrust God is the very area in which He most trusts you. He is saying, "I knew you could..."

He is our help and shield. ( You who fear him, trust in the LORD— he is their help and shield. Psalm 115:11)

So, have you filled in that blank? Do you want to tell Satan, "No more messing with my mind?" Then I invite you to turn aside with me, take off your 'shoes', that which needs entrusting, and look to Him. I am searching His Word and will listen to the rest of this series by Beth.

HE IS TRUSTWORTHY.

Father, help me to define, locate, and trust with my heart that which I have said with my mouth, yet still 'hover over'. I want to be 'light' of heart and have a mind filled with peace and not 'spewing.' You alone are worthy of my trust.

In Jesus' Name, Amen.