“The Lord himself watches over you!

The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.

The sun will not hurt you by day, nor the moon at night.

The Lord keeps you from evil and preserves your life.

The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go,

both now and forever.

Psalms 121:5-8 NLT

Hello MDE women! I hope today finds you well and everyone you love is healthy and happy. Since March I’ve experienced a lot of anxiety and bouts of depression similar to when I was a teen. I’m sure some of you can agree this year’s been really difficult, especially for those of us who deal with mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. However, over the past few months I have limited my time on social media to 30 minutes – no longer than an hour – a day, and the only news I will watch is the weather. Now, of ‘ course I’m staying informed through other outlets but I only consume about an hour of news a day. Because I have “turned off the noise” so to speak, of the news and social media, I have been hearing more clearly from the Lord. In the devotion I’m doing on YouVersion called, Jesus Over Everything, the author Lisa Whittle teaches you how to clear your minds and hearts of the chaos and confusion so your souls can find true rest and meaning. I am currently on day four and decided I would share some of my thoughts with all of you! I hope you will join me over the course of the next five weeks as we dig deep into what it means to put Jesus over everything. Today we will be looking at the word Trust.

Jesus over everything Week 1: Trust

The title for day one of Jesus over everything is called, “Start with What is True”. We all know that life can be crazy. In day one’s devotion, Lisa shares about growing up and seeing God’s faithfulness each time she was faced with challenges and hard times. She goes on to say that Jesus will stabilize us in a storm, much like an anchor on a boat. The anchor on a boat never prevents a storm, but when the storm rages, and we have our anchor down, we won’t be tossed back and forth by the waves because we have something firmly planted underneath the waters keeping us upright. However, if we are to be anchored to Jesus there needs to be some trust. I would like to pose the same question Lisa asked, “Is Jesus for you?” If we are to trust Him, we need to ask ourselves this question. As we saw in the quote I shared at the beginning, the Lord is always watching over us and protecting us. This means He is a God that can be trusted. When we trust Him to calm the chaos going on around us, and the chaos that tries to grab hold of our souls, there is a sense of peace that washes over us. I have experienced this firsthand. There has been many times when I was having an anxiety attack that I simply asked Jesus to take it from me, and He covered me with such a peace that no weighted blanket could ever do. Don’t get me wrong, I love my weighted blanket, but it’s nothing compared to the peace of God that comes over me at just the right time.

When chaos and confusion try to dig their claws in you, start with what you know is true. Jesus is for you, and you can trust Him to calm your chaos.

Finally, at the end of each devotion Lisa gives the reader three question to focus on. For the next five weeks I would like to end our discussions with the same questions from each day. After reading the questions, write down on a piece of paper or journal your answers and talk to the Lord about them. If you feel so inclined, share them in the comments below. Thank you for taking time to read this. I hope it blessed you as much as it did me. Look forward to sharing this devotion over the course of the next five weeks.

Week 1 questions:

• What difficulties, disappointments, betrayals, or hurts have formed trust issues for you that have caused you to struggle to trust even God?
• What reasons has God given you to believe Him?
• Write down three “truth” statements (personalized from God’s Word) that circumstances of your life cannot touch (for example: God is with me wherever I go. Joshua 1:9). How would the chaos of your life calm if you let these truths soak in?

Remember, you are loved, valued, and held by Jesus.

~ Angie ~