Thought for Today
Joshua 24:23 He said, "Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel."
Jeremiah 31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Matthew 15:7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: 8 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.
You may have noticed that I always close these Thoughts with some variation of “Stay safe, xxx, trust God.” I first began sharing my thoughts during the pandemic as a way of keeping in touch with our family-of-faith during those times we could not be together in person. Staying safe, preserving our lives was of primary concern for all of God’s children in the face of that (then) deadly virus. I soon added ‘trust God’ to my closing as a reminder of the ultimate source of both our lives and our safety.
This morning, the title of the devotional in These Days is “Trust in the Lord.” The author’s subject verse is “Psalm 146:3 Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.” As I read that devotional this morning, I could not help but remember a phrase from the Vietnam conflict about winning the hearts and minds of the people.
Winning hearts and minds is critical for any religion, any political movement or any philosophical concept. Truthfully, we cannot be safe and secure unless our minds are assured of the validity of that religion, political movement or philosophical concept. Today, most of us realize that our hearts pump our blood. In phrases about winning hearts and minds, the truth is that the goal is to convince both the analytical and the emotional parts of our brains.
A popular phrase I hear today is a reference to one’s ‘lizard brain.’ Lizard brain is defined as “the part of the human brain or personality believed to produce behaviour based on instinct (=natural reactions and behaviours that are not under your conscious control) or emotion, rather than on reasonable thought or on things you have learned.” (dictionaly.cambridge.org) Presumably, the antonym would be a reference to our mammalian brain. To really feel safe or secure we need to convince both our lizard brain and our mammalian brain that we are safe.
Long ago the authors of our scriptures captured the same idea somewhat differently. Those passages above speak to a common idea throughout the Bible of God imprinting God’s words on our hearts. I still remember my first reading of Jeremiah 31:33. I’m still not sure which clause of that verse I find most comforting and reassuring, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts;” or, “ and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” I’m not even sure whether they are independent clauses or whether each is dependent on the other.
Where do you put your trust? Where do you anchor, tether or fix your life? What is your pivot point? I find great comfort, deep reassurance in the idea of God’s law written on my heart. Not that I believe my salvation is achieved through perfect obedience to God’s law; it is not. “Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—”
God’s law, written on my heart, provides my life with boundaries. God’s law is a firm, sure anchor for my life. As long as my life pivots around that fixed point, I can be assured that God is my God and I am ensconced among God’s people. Yesterday, I mentioned that hymn I Know Who Holds Tomorrow. I still have a copy of it sitting on my desk right beside my computer as I type this.
I purposefully, deliberately place my trust in the One whom I know holds my tomorrow and all of my tomorrows going forward. Because God has written on my heart and on the hearts of my family-of-faith, I can forge resolutely ahead toward that time for which we so often pray, when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Trusting God, I rest securely among God’s people, doing God’s work, hastening the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom here on earth.
Stay safe, access those laws written on your heart by your God, trust God,
Pastor Ray