A Better Way to Handle Overload? Scriptures to Avoid a Pitfall #7 - Isaiah 30:15
Have you ever found yourself facing so many “unknowns” that instead of strategically working your way down your to-do list your mind just shuts down? This was me over 20 years ago as our family was preparing for a one year move to Pittsburgh (which might as well have been to another country since I’ve always lived in the south). Except my mental “shutdown” was quickly replaced with my brain shifting into HIGH GEAR OVERLOAD. I let myself believe that if I constantly kept busy doing, working, cleaning, stressing, somehow all the details that were ahead of us would fall into place. It was the best way I knew to try and create order in what felt like crazy chaos all around. My efforts to cope were not working.
We had endless decisions that needed to be made with many deadlines that had to be met - none of which we could control:
We needed to sell our home (especially since we’d just purchased a second home to come back to PRIOR to selling the first one).
We needed to find a rental home in Pittsburgh where the schools would be a good fit for our three kids (particularly for our youngest who has special needs).
We needed to get rid of a lot of accumulated “stuff” and then figure out what could be stored for a year and what should be boxed and moved.
We needed to say goodbye to a community with which we were at home and happy.
As my mind was reeling in angst, here’s what saved the day for me. I pray it will do the same for you. I was cleaning and “decluttering” the kitchen drawers (to prepare for our move) when I found a small index card with a verse. This verse has become one of my favorites.
Isaiah 30:15 ...in quietness and trust is your strength.”
Read this again. Quietness (absence of noise and bustle, calm) and Trust (to place our confidence in) is your Strength (victory and power found in God). Those seven words were (and still are) a soft whisper to my heart straight from the heart of God. They were exactly what I needed to hear. “Quietness and trust” were the complete opposite of what I was experiencing as I frantically tried to handle things on my own.
“Child, be still and allow Me to quiet your heart and your mind. I am with you. Trust Me in this. I am where you will find your strength.” The Lord spoke to my heart when I chose to take a breath and be still. On December 29, 1997, the day I found Isaiah 30:15 index card, I put the date in my Bible beside the verse. That’s a good thing because that next year was a wild ride! Today, I again wrote the date beside this same verse. Oh, how I need to be reminded that my strength comes in the calm quiet of trusting God.
I encourage you to write the date beside a specific verse of scripture whenever it speaks directly to what you are struggling with at the moment. Especially when you feel desperate for direction or assurance that God will see you through. My Bible has a lot of margins filled with dates! Each time I come across a place in the margins of my Bible where I have jotted a note and recorded a date, it reminds me of how faithful God has always been to walk closely beside me. He is able and worthy of our trust.
How might your day look different if you choose to find your strength in quietness and in trust instead of busyness and worry?