A DEVOTIONAL FOR OUR COME AWAY VIRTUAL QUIET DAY ON OCTOBER 17TH. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Mark 6:31-32
I believe that the message in this passage is more than an invitation to be alone with Jesus for a time of rest; it is an invitation to be still and hear the Word of God; to reflect upon its meaning and application to one’s life.
When I spend time alone with the Lord, reading, understanding, and meditating on His Word, it is in the stillness, silence, and solitude that I am convicted of my sins and comforted in my sorrows and struggles. It is there that He leads and guides me, there that He transforms me.
Recently I find myself troubled by what is happening in America, particularly by the political and partisan enmity. Both those on the left and those on the right of the political divide seem to view the upcoming election as a contest for the soul of our country. As I read the news I find myself angry, frustrated, fearful, worried, anxious, sad. I focus often on the problems facing our country rather than on the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
Studying Psalms 1 and 2 has convicted and comforted me, led and guided me to think differently; it has transformed me by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2). Psalm 1:2 states that those whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditate on His law day and night are happy. This “happy” is not so much a mood as it is a state of being. If I think deeply on the law of the Lord and find pleasure in doing so, then I will be happy. I will not feel the negative emotions that I experience when I make the latest news my meditation.
Psalm 2:1-2, 4, reminds me that although the nations conspire, the peoples plot in vain, and the kings and rulers of the earth take counsel together, setting themselves against the Lord and His anointed, it is the Lord who sits in the heavens laughing and holding them in derision. God laughs at the rulers of the earth who plot and scheme in rebellion against His sovereignty, thereby revealing how absurd He considers their machinations.
Psalm 146:3-6 reiterates some of these ideas as well. Here we are admonished not to put our trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help, because when their breath departs, their plans perish. Instead, it says that happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.
So, having been convicted of not trusting wholly in the Lord, I am now comforted in meditating on the sovereignty of God. No matter who wins the election, our Lord Jesus Christ is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of Lords (1Timothy 6:14-15). He is the Alpha and the Omega, who is and was and is to come, the Almighty (Revelation1:8).
Jesus invites me to spend time with Him, to take refuge in Him. I do so, and I am happy.
