Isaiah 41 | Wayfarer

So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)

When I became a follower of Jesus as a teenager, I soon found myself being spiritually mentored by a gentleman who was my boss in an after school job. Every Tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m. we would meet in his office. Very quickly he began to instill in me the discipline of memorizing verses and passages from God’s Message. The verse I’ve pasted at the to of this post was among the first that I committed to memory.

This morning as I woke and began to think about starting my day meditating on today’s chapter, I immediately associated Isaiah 41 with the verse I had memorized some 35 years ago. My soul smiled as I looked forward to journeying through the entire chapter once again.

As an amateur actor, I am used to memorizing words. I have memorized lines for many parts in many shows. In just the past few months, I had to refresh myself in memorizing that same lines for the same part I played 10 years ago. It’s amazing how few of them I actually remembered. I’m not sure having memorized them ten years ago was much of a help.

I find it fascinating that words from God’s Message memorized 35 years ago come so quickly to mind, while words memorized for a part 10 years ago were completely lost to me. I think there are reasons for this on a number of different levels, but I believe one of the key differences lies in fact that the lines of Eliot Herzog in The Christmas Post were committed to my brain for a finite period of time. I had to get through the handful of performances and then the lines had little value to me. Isaiah 41:10, however, was committed to both my mind and my heart. It became spiritually useful and beneficial to me whenever I traversed a particularly rough stretch of life’s journey.

This morning I am thinking of words that live inside my spirit, and words that I have buried in my mind. I am thankful for my old mentor and the discipline he instilled in me during those spiritually formative years. I am grateful for these words of Isaiah that have bubbled up to the surface once again as 2016 wanes and 2017 is about to begin. I am, once again, reminded not to be afraid of what the future holds, as I know Who holds me in the palm of His hand.

Don't panic. I'm with you. There's no need to fear for I'm your God. I'll give you strength. I'll help you. I'll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.Isaiah 41:10 (MSG)

There is a first aid kit in the back of my car. There's another one in the boat at the lake. When I was a lifeguard as a teen it was mandatory to know where the first aid kit was located. You never know when you might need it. It was, perhaps, that very realization as a teenager which made me think about the idea of a spiritual first aid kit.

It was simple. I jotted down a few verses that provided me with encouragement and reminded me of God's faithful provision, power, protection and promise. Isaiah 41:10 was always one of the verses in my "kit." I would then fold up the paper and stick it in my pocket. Throughout the day, as I reached into my pocket and felt the paper there, I was reminded of God's message. I would quickly, mentally think through the verses. When stress or anxiety would rise, I would reach into my pocket, or simply remember what was there. The verses popped to mind and reminded me of God's presence. The simple discipline of responding to negative emotion with positive reinforcement from God's Message was a lifesaver.

Throughout my life, as I have faced difficult legs of life's journey, I've gone back to the practice of sticking a spiritual first aid kit in my pocket.

What verse(es) would you put in yours?