Stayed on You

 Sometimes the Lord sends me a message through a song, then through scripture, then repeats it in a life experience, and so on until it dawns on me, “Maybe you are trying to tell me something?” 🤔

The song was “Stayed on You” (by Eben) while listening to some praise and worship music during personal prayer time. The refrain was: 

“I will keep my mind stayed on you

All I want to do is to worship you

For you are great and greatly to be praised

You alone are God...”

The refrain “stayed” with me for days. For the past several nights since recovering from the more acute symptoms of this insipid virus, I have been experiencing insomnia. Not a usual thing for me. It’s been pretty intense too. My brain is wired sometimes with anxious thoughts, or just thinking through  my day ahead, and it can’t seem to shut down. I mean, until 2:30 or 3 a.m. No matter what aids and methods to prepare myself for sleep. No matter. So I researched it. 

Apparently it’s a common after-affect. The virus affects people neurologically somehow in addition to other commonly known symptoms and many people have experienced acute insomnia even after seemingly getting over it. 

So last night, rather than allow my anxiety to build and build, no end in sight, I thought of that song. And I remembered a priest that greatly influenced my spiritual life before he passed away, teaching us (fellow disciples) a method of praying, repeating the name of Jesus in a simple phrase over and over such as “Jesus I trust in you.” Or the one he had learned based on what God had done in his life was “My Jesus I trust in your mercy and love.” He had developed such a habit, that he was saying it out loud in his sleep, like breathing it in and out. And I thought “this is one simple way, to keep my mind “stayed on you.” And I began praying “My Jesus I love you I give you my heart.” Because it is what came to me when he taught us this method, over and over. Gradually, peace came to my mind. I probably prayed this way for over an hour. And eventually, I was asleep. 

Then today I thought, I bet there’s a scripture about “keeping my mind stayed on you” and there it was, in Isaiah. 

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

“Because he trusts in you” I thought to myself. And today the Bible in a Year podcast I am following with Fr. Mike Schmitz from Ascension Press, was about Abraham trusting the Lord, and Job, trusting the Lord. Especially, when it’s really hard to. 

Being at peace is really simple. It’s shutting out the noise around us, no matter how intense, and keeping our mind stayed on Him. Because He’s trustworthy.