Mental Prodigals

Merriam-Webster dictionary characterizes wandering by aimless, slow, or pointless movement. You can call it surfing the web. Hour after hour spent browsing web pages or sites at random. Or lying in bed letting your mind travel from past to present in some endless loop.

Most of us wander in our minds when we are bored or restless. Others will drift from thought to thought to avoid pain and uncomfortable circumstances.

You may say we are a nation of rootless people - constantly in motion or on the move - but sadly much of it is wasted effort since there lacks a clear, defined purpose. No wonder so many believers lack peace because they are in pieces from a kaleidoscope of jumbled and random thoughts.

Here's a precious promise. God not only brings home the prodigal but He restores the mental and emotional prodigal, too. His desire is what Jeremiah describes in 17:8 that "They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." (NIV). Similarly, we are to be ground and rooted in love (Ephesians 3:17).

Our roots in His word must go deeper still so that we are not easily moved and shaken by every distractive or attractive thought that leads us away from Him.

Beloved, we must spend time with Him though it can be a battle to order our thoughts and focus on the Word. Even prayer can be challenging when we seemingly leap frog from one random request to another - and we wonder what's the point?

But this is where we so desperately need the Holy Spirit to help calm our inner storm of raging thoughts and order our minds to be at rest. God will help us stay rooted and anchored to His word.

After all He is called the Root of Jesse (Revelation 22:16).