coming back to simple

God has been teaching me something lately about how simple the Bible actually is and How simple following Jesus actually is.

For years I read Scripture without really receiving it. Like there was a filter over my eyes. I was taking it in, but I wasn’t absorbing it.

You know how people say you can eat all the right foods, take all the right vitamins, and still not benefit if your body can’t absorb the nutrients? That’s exactly how it was for me spiritually. I was consuming the Word. I just wasn’t in a place to absorb it.

Now God’s showing me how to come to His Word with simplicity. To read it at face value, without inserting my own opinions or overcomplicating what was never meant to be complicated. The gospel is simple. Following Jesus is simple.

There’s a warning in Scripture about being led away from exactly that. About how easily we complicate what God meant to be straightforward. Back in the Garden, the enemy didn’t outright deny God’s truth. He twisted it. He made something simple sound complicated.

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” — 2 Corinthians 11:3

But God calls us back to simplicity.

Isaiah says:

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

There’s a promise in that verse, and a condition. The promise is perfect peace. The condition is a mind fixed on Him. So if my mind isn’t stayed on the Lord, I shouldn’t really be surprised when peace isn’t there either.

Philippians tells us exactly what to think about:

“Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things. Center your mind on them and implant them in your heart.” — Philippians 4:8, AMP

I know that can sound countercultural, especially right now. Some people would call it naive. Irresponsible, even. Like I’m ignoring reality.

But I’ve made a decision. I’m going to take God at His word.

So what happens when hard, true things are sitting right in front of me?

Something can be true and still not be good, or praiseworthy, or excellent to sit and dwell on. And if it’s not, I’m choosing not to let my thoughts camp out there. I get to take my own thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). So I’m choosing to be a little uninformed. I’m okay not knowing every headline. I’m making space in my mind for things that actually benefit me (1 Corinthians 10:23).

This isn’t delusion. It’s not pretending I live in some fantasy world where nothing hard is happening. It’s just choosing the Bible’s way of holding what’s true.

Here’s the question I actually ask myself now, every time I read a headline or a post: what fruit is this producing in me? That’s usually a pretty honest answer to whether I should keep engaging with it or not.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” — Galatians 5:22-23

Now, God calls all of us to different paths. I know some people genuinely need to stay up to date on certain things — that’s just not my lane right now. I trust I have a good Father, and if there’s something I actually need to know, He’ll show me however He sees fit.

So instead, I ask Him for heaven’s perspective. And He gives it. It always lines up with what’s true, and good, and worth praising.

I’m walking through some hard situations right now — things touching people I love. It would be easy to feel completely overwhelmed by it. Instead I keep asking, God, what’s Your perspective on this? I don’t always get clarity right away. But I will, eventually. And honestly, just talking to Him about it brings its own kind of comfort in the meantime.

I remember a season when someone’s words hurt me deeply. I felt myself shutting down — getting almost okay with the idea of never speaking to them again. A root of bitterness had started growing, quietly, before I even noticed it.

So I asked the Lord for His perspective on it.

And He showed me something.

I closed my eyes and saw those people sitting at a table. Then I was invited to step behind a curtain, walk up a flight of stairs, and look down on the whole thing from above — like I’d stepped outside the situation entirely and was seeing it from heaven’s vantage point instead of mine.

I saw strings attached to them. Like puppets. And the strings were being pulled by the enemy.

Something shifted in me right there.

I realized the battle was never against them. Scripture says we’re not fighting flesh and blood — we’re fighting spiritual forces (Ephesians 6:12). That one shift in perspective uprooted the bitterness that had started taking hold. Compassion replaced it. Love replaced it. I was able to actually pray for them instead of carrying resentment around.

Bitterness leads to so much else. So much pain, quietly, underneath the surface.

“See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” — Hebrews 12:15

Let’s read God’s Word for exactly what it says.

If we want perfect peace, and I know I do, then we fix our minds on Him. We choose to think on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. If there’s anything excellent, anything worth praising… we let our minds land there, and stay.