elysian
August 18th 2004, 09:21 AM
I think the barren feelings or "dry spells" come when we are so busy and preoccupied that we no longer take the time to be still and rest in God- when we think we can handle our burdens by ourselves instead of casting our cares on the Lord. (Yes I am very guilty of this too!)
I've been struggling with feeling overwhelmed and like God is far away lately as well, and I think part of it comes down to it being the tail end of summer and there's so much to do with getting the rug rat ready to go back to school, and this and that project as well as dealing with some persistent health problems. Still God cares for me and Jesus died to save me from sin, even when I have a hard time seeing Him- even when I am in pain or tired or whiny or having a hard time just seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I am so thankful that our salvation, our restoration, our Hope, is dependent upon His grace and not on what we do. God's love and care for us is not contingent upon our feelings: feelings change, God does not.
I agree we all need to do less and rest in Him more. This was the subject of one of our Pastor's sermons a couple of weeks ago, that the idea behind Sabbath wasn't to create a bunch of rules or make even more "stuff to do", but that we need to consciously and deliberately take time for rest, for simply being still and knowing God is God. Even Jesus got away from time to time for rest. Do we really think we can endure better than Him? Do we think we can keep going without rest? Can we grow and thrive without study, prayer and meditation on Him and His Word?
I think this might be why Jesus said Mary got the "better portion"- while Martha did the work she missed out because she didn't take the time to be still, to listen, to be renewed by hearing God's word spoken and taught- by the Master Teacher no less!
One of the "sung prayers" or litanies at my church paraphrases Psalm 51: "Create in me a clean heart, oh, God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your Presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with Your free Spirit." The Psalms were originally intended to be chanted, sung and set to instrumental music.
I pray for all of us today that we will set aside a moment to be still, to be more like Mary than Martha, and allow God to restore to us the joy of our salvation!
I've been struggling with feeling overwhelmed and like God is far away lately as well, and I think part of it comes down to it being the tail end of summer and there's so much to do with getting the rug rat ready to go back to school, and this and that project as well as dealing with some persistent health problems. Still God cares for me and Jesus died to save me from sin, even when I have a hard time seeing Him- even when I am in pain or tired or whiny or having a hard time just seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I am so thankful that our salvation, our restoration, our Hope, is dependent upon His grace and not on what we do. God's love and care for us is not contingent upon our feelings: feelings change, God does not.
I agree we all need to do less and rest in Him more. This was the subject of one of our Pastor's sermons a couple of weeks ago, that the idea behind Sabbath wasn't to create a bunch of rules or make even more "stuff to do", but that we need to consciously and deliberately take time for rest, for simply being still and knowing God is God. Even Jesus got away from time to time for rest. Do we really think we can endure better than Him? Do we think we can keep going without rest? Can we grow and thrive without study, prayer and meditation on Him and His Word?
I think this might be why Jesus said Mary got the "better portion"- while Martha did the work she missed out because she didn't take the time to be still, to listen, to be renewed by hearing God's word spoken and taught- by the Master Teacher no less!
One of the "sung prayers" or litanies at my church paraphrases Psalm 51: "Create in me a clean heart, oh, God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your Presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with Your free Spirit." The Psalms were originally intended to be chanted, sung and set to instrumental music.
I pray for all of us today that we will set aside a moment to be still, to be more like Mary than Martha, and allow God to restore to us the joy of our salvation!