Quietness and trust will be our strength

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. Isaiah 30

This quote is in a chapter where God is berating the people for trusting in any group or people or in possessions of any kind to save them. Good quote for Lent.

First, returning. A time when traditionally we “give up” something for lent, when we let go of some attitude or practice that we have come to realize is not good

Then Rest. I wondered how this fits into Lent, but then I thought how many of us are either overextended in all kinds of busyness. Or our minds are like monkeys always chattering, so rest could mean we seek to give our brains a rest and just take up the practice of a walking prayer,

In Quietness. There are two aspects of this that could help us and one is that we provide ourselves with more quiet time, when we set aside time for prayer or spiritual reading, or just star gazing! The other is that we actually pray!

But the best is trust. to affirm to God that we do indeed trust in the love that God has for us. That we know that God wants only what is for our good. That we let go of anxiety and substitute a prayer of trust whenever we feel ourselves anxious.

We do all of this when we take the time for Christian meditation or centering prayer. Twice a day is best. We set aside the time. We sit and call to mind the reality of the Presence of God who is always present, always sustaining us in life by his love, never far off no matter how we feel. We choose a simple prayer word like Maranatha, or the Holy Name, and just keep saying it and come back to this prayer whenever we realize our mind has wandered off on anything else at all.

We are just entrusting our lives to God as Jesus did when He prayed: Into your hands I commend my spirit.

Quietness and trust will be our strength.