As the images of everything we “need” flash across our screens, or sit in the depths of our hearts, all that we long for, comfort, joy, purpose, confidence, being seen, being understood, provided for…we realize that all of that is not found in the things around us.

I am excited to enter this season of rest, healing, new challenges, discipling my children, and strengthening my marriage, and being a better friend.

Then, thoughts and doubts creep in. Anxious about all that I cannot control, I get on my knees, take deep breaths and seek Jesus.

Short conversations that should have been encouraging, rocked my world. Rather than finding contentment and rest in where God has me now, I fear for the future, doubt all that we are doing, and if left to myself, want to crawl in a hole and cry, and I do cry. I crank up worship music and dig deep into God’s Word.

When I am challenged, where do I turn? It should first and always be Christ, His Word. If I truly believe He is the Creator, King, Savior, Redeemer, Healer, than anything else is silly. It’s like if I were having a heart attack and I drove to Krispy Kreme. I’m not saying I get this right every time, but goodness I am so encouraged by God in His Word and prayer. I pray that you are too.

As I shared in our private Bible Reading Accountability Group, I wanted to share this here as well.

Psalm 95 (NIV)

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
    and extol him with music and song.

3 For the Lord is the great God,
    the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
    and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,[a]
    as you did that day at Massah[b] in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested me;
    they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
    I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
    and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 95:8 Meribah means quarreling.

2. Psalm 95:8 Massah means testing.

   (Footnotes from BibleGateway.com)

Too often I sat with a hardened heart when I was in a place of quarreling, or testing in the wilderness. Desperate for God’s rest, and not my own solutions that do not satisfy, I pray that you find rest in God as well. Don’t look to the world to be satisfied.

Love,

V