Sunday, November 11, 2012

Rest


This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. Isaiah 30:15

Every ounce of energy was gone. Every weight of exhaustion laid heavy on my ill frame. Ironically, I attended a “healing service,” as it’s often called, the night I fell ill. Healing was thick in the room as my state slowly worsened. In all, God moved over me. In the days to come, He guided me, protected me, and provided for me.

Healing comes in many ways. Sometimes how we expect, often how we do not. God may decide to reveal His glory through the pain; the only way He can fully and truly be seen. It is not our preference, but it is our healing.

God could have healed the common cold and sent me on my way. Yet, He had a greater plan: to heal by the hour, not by the symptom. He desired to show me His strength through the storm rather than His delivering from the storm. He desired to develop a more consistent faith, dependence, and trust in His leading rather than my moving. Above all, He wanted me to rest in Him and find my strength in Him alone. He allowed the extreme of exhaustion to settle over me noting, “You will rest here in My care.” And so I did. With body resting and mind racing, He waited on me as I waited on Him. So much surfaced in these Sabbath days: My neglect of prayer and His faithful Presence. My running ragged and His quiet restoration. My heart’s hurt and His heart’s hope. In quietness and trust is my strength, my healing, my hope, my love.

Enjoy Him, Michelle mlpack777@gmail.com