The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart exults, and with my song I shall thank Him. Psalm 28:7.

For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6.

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10.

I love this from You Are the Beloved by Henri Nouwen: “Joyful persons do not necessarily make jokes, laugh, or even smile. They are not people with an optimistic outlook on life who always relativize the seriousness of a moment or an event. No, joyful persons see with open eyes the hard reality of human existence and at the same time are not imprisoned by it. They have no illusion about the evil powers that roam around, “looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8), but they also know that death has no final power. They suffer with those who suffer, yet they do not hold on to suffering; they point beyond it to an everlasting peace.”

Paul shows us all of the above in all of his writings to the churches experiencing the upheavals of the confusions of this world, as they were so new to this understanding – that Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, is for them and is their help and comfort and strength. Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ – I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent! I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we. For even if I boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame, for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters. For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.” Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present. For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. But we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we did not reach to you, for we were the first to come even as far as you in the gospel of Christ; not boasting beyond our measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but with the hope that as your faith grows, we will be, within our sphere, enlarged even more by you, so as to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast in what has been accomplished in the sphere of another. But he who boasts is to boast in the Lord. For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends.

Imagine living in this time of the church brought into being and how different everything was with new understanding about God and what He is doing for us in the world. And Paul, devout in all the understanding of the Pharisees for Scripture as it was in existence then, is sent by God to be the apostle to the Gentiles who had never been allowed to worship with Israel. The pressures of old understanding from both the Jews and from the Gentiles’ old ways of worshiping, encroached and brought confusion. Weapons of the flesh…speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God…looking at things outwardly…commending themselves…measuring themselves by themselves…comparing themselves with themselves…without understanding. Fortresses. Paul needed to address all of that. Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. I have needed to do that – take every thought captive that was warring within me bringing confusion of who Creator God is. The gospel of Christ. Learning with Him about His love by loving Him is how I follow Him. This world is on a trajectory of ever increasing confusion, hate, and all its resulting violence. We are living in a time when nothing in this broken world is certain. Maybe we need to see and experience just how uncertain are the things of this world we counted upon to be stable. We are confused about our identity; so much so now that even some are confused about their own gender. Without understanding. But never without God’s love. “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. The Gospel of Christ. We are loved by Creator God and in His timing His Son will return and His kingdom will be established and we shall be healed and will grow in understanding together with Him. All the confused fortresses of this broken world will be no more. The truth of God’s Love dispels the darkness and the darkness can only flee. Imagine the darkness seen by the eyes of Jesus, the Son, as He lived among us. He kept His eyes always to the Father and spoke the truth of His Love and showed us we, too, can keep our eyes on Him. His covenant of peace brings understanding and stability as we navigate this world while following Him. His peace…not as the world gives. And blessing of blessings, we find as we follow Him that He is our strength bringing hope and His faithfulness to bear in our lives given to Him. How can we not hope for that for all of us? New understanding from of old. Creator God IS and we are blessed in Him. Always!