Stayed

Isaiah 26:3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Meanings of words change over time. Dictionaries change due to social use so in order to rightly understand stayed we must look to the original translation. Stayed in this context is most closely related to leaning upon that which is upright and unmoveable.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

We once again find the clear distinction between the mind and the heart.

1 John 4:16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 3:17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

The mind is the seat of reason, the heart is the seat of God’s love for those who believe by faith. Therefore trusting the Lord is leaning on the love that abides in our hearts rather than reasoning with our minds which are constantly being bombarded by worldly influences.

Measure Maturity

Ephesians 4:13-15 English Standard Version

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

2 Corinthians 10:12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

Since it is unwise to compare ourselves with one another, how can we compare ourselves to Jesus who is perfect in every way?

When we are looking for personal maturity we should be looking at ourselves and evidence of our past to see if we indeed have matured.

Do you journal? Do you put down your thoughts and understandings on paper?

If you do it is the perfect opportunity to look at what you believed in the past and do a realistic comparison with today’s understanding.

I reviewed an article I wrote decades ago and I found it full of arrogant assumptions.

Maturity allowed me to see those writings without condemning myself for being like that in my past.

How much further do I have to mature? That is not up to me. It never was.

Daily Christian Devotionals