Psalm 37: 3-7
Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him…
rest - to cease from action or motion : refrain from labor or exertion
to be free from anxiety or disturbance
to remain confident : trust
to be based or founded
to remain for action or accomplishment
I’ve spent the past few years watching and listening to my parents. My step-dad spends his energy being angry with God for his hard life, the suicide of his first wife, and death of his first daughter. He doesn’t yell and rant and rave at God, but the anger is there underlying. His pain robs him of seeing the loving God that He truly isand of wanting to be with such a loving Father. My mother is so lost in herself and her current misery and loneliness that she can’t see her way straight to the Father. If she could only realize His intense love for her, that love would flow into every crevice of her being and make her whole and complete. I’ve prayed for them and agonized for them, then one day I realized just how little I too know the Father.
I’ve grown up as His precious little girl. I’ve known and loved Him my whole life ...and yet it’s amazing just how the world around us, our bringing up, and our own thoughts and preoccupations shape our view of God. God’s love impacted me as a small child. I felt it so real, so personal. And now so many years later when times get tough I question where did that love that I knew so real back then go and has my love grown cold? You see - even though I KNEW God loved me - as I grew older I always felt like I had to earn that love and that punishment and harshness and lack of blessings awaited me if I fell short which of course I did so often. I went from delighting in the Lord to working for Him and doing for Him and lost the delighting in Him and resting in Him part. And even though years ago the Lord graciously set me free from my works mentality, I find that I don’t rest in Him nearly enough.
Watchman Nee in his book Sit Walk Standwrites about the importance of sitting with Christ – resting with Him. You see when Christ was crucified and died on the cross that fateful day, we were crucified with Him. Our old man with all of its worldly and wicked desires was nailed to that cross and bore upon our Lord and Savior. God raised Him up from the dead and made Him to sit at His right hand and raised us up with him, making us to sit with Him in heavenly places. How often do we stop and rest in what God has done rather than what we can do for God? How often do we struggle in our sins or unrest or despair of heart when Christ did the work for our deliverance and forgiveness, for our peace, for our healing and wholeness? There’s not a thing in the world that we can do to earn them. Christ did it already.
Rest assured we serve a Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace who loves us more passionately than we can imagine and who already bore our pain and wretchedness upon Himself – a pure and holy Being. He is the Potter, and we are the clay. Imagine yourself resting in His mighty, skillful capable hands being fashioned and molded so beautifully and perfectly. Today I admonish you to join me in trusting, feeding, delighting in the Lord and resting in Him and waiting patiently for Him. While our hands work so busily may our spirits find rest seated with Christ, being free from exertion and anxiety and disturbance. God bless you. Have a wonderful weekend. See you on Sunday!
Blessings,
Rolanda Green
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