June 30 - Resting
Scripture focus: For as long, then, as that promise of resting in him pulls us on to God's goal for us, we need to be careful that we're not disqualified. We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn't do them a bit of good because they didn't receive the promises with faith. If we believe, though, we'll experience that state of resting. But not if we don't have faith. Remember that God said, exasperated, I vowed, "They'll never get where they're going, never be able to sit down and rest." Hebrews 4:1-3 (The Message)
Sit down and rest.
Try it.
It's easier than running for an hour per day!
Take ten or twenty minutes per day, and simply rest into the loving arms of God.
At first this might seem uncomfortable. But just try it.
Let me know what you discover.
Recommended reading: 2 Corinthians 4-6
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Copyright 2009 NorthStar Community
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Copyright 2009 NorthStar Community
2 comments:
Next to the minor, ongoing task of surrendering my entire will and life to God, the thing that has given me the best fighting chance against my hurts, hangups, habits, lies the world tells me and lies I tell myself is the practice of sitting still with God.
Call it meditation or centering prayer or "being as a stone in the desert," sitting still with God grounds me in the reality of his presence in my life and a reality that transcends what my eyes see, what my ears hear and what my waking mind thinks.
And just like recovery, it's messy and requires effort on my part. Sometimes my meditation is wrought with frustration and resentment about real and perceived wrongs against me. Sometimes it sounds like an air traffic control tower. But sometimes I hit that sweet spot of being able to let go of the worldly world and just _be_. And it's just really cool.
So my work is to keep doing it, not get stressed out if I miss a day (like today!), and not feel like a failure if my efforts don't result in constant bliss.
When God first got this concept through to me, I actually had withdrawal symptoms from not using my "survival efforts" to gain acceptance and love. I could only hang out with Him in each moment, waiting for His voice just to take another step in my day. It was the most difficult lesson I have ever had to learn.
Now we sit together at different times with no set pattern and when I am overwhelmed I find that often, I have an overwhelming urge to RUN to sit with Him (and I do it). How freeing it is to know that He doesn't care how messy I am.
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