Sunday 20 March 2011

The Rest of God

A few years ago God gave me a short message, it was. "You will bow before me, you will bow in my presence."
For so long, I have have struggled to understand what He was trying to tell me.
However, now, I think I have a better understanding. Basically, it is to do with patience, humility and resting in Him.

Psalm 95 has given me some understanding. Verse 6:7 'O come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before our maker. For He is our God and we are the people of His pasture. And the sheep of his hand.'
Worship is dear to my heart. For thirteen years I was privileged to lead worship in church. But since our building was sold and our church congregation scattered abroad, so to speak, I have felt lost, wondering in a wilderness.
Raising my voice to sing is hard. I feel stifled and bound. The freedom I once had is gone.

Sometimes I struggle to worship at all, but this psalm exhorts us to do just that. To realize who God is and what He has done. To worship in spirit and in truth. Worship through the pain and sadness.
To humble myself and bow in His Divine and glorious presence.
In verse 11 there is a warning, not to be like those who test God, they will not enter His rest.

We had a word from God just before we heard our building was sold. He said. 'Rest,' among other things.
Resting is hard to do when you are used to having a ministry and working with God.
It is even harder for my husband. I know he is struggling.
In the church we have been attending for a few months now, we were given a word from an elder. God told us through him, that we will not be staying there.
It has unsettled us. We are praying God will lead us out of this wilderness soon, and show us where He wants us to be and what He wants us to do.
In one way it's a blessing to know He has a work for us, it's not over. In fact from the word we received, it's only just begun.

One of my favourite authors F.B.Meyer explains psalm 95 this way. He says, this psalm is deeply woven into the life of the church, because of the worshipful strain which pervades it.
The works of God in creation are specially enumerated as incentives to praise.The sea, the hills, the deep places of earth have often inspired the minstrel, but how much more the devout soul.

There is a sabbath of the heart, when the will is yielded to Gods will, and the heart is cleansed from it's wayward whims. When the very peace of the Divine nature, settles down on the heart.
That experience is an entrance into Gods rest. It remains unexhausted for all the people of God.
Let us not miss it through default of faith!

I pray God, my hubby and I will attain God's rest, and have the opportunity to glorify Him.

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