Below is a Thanksgiving Prayer from Scotty Smith, pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN. Read, and let your heart be softened this holiday!
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Col. 2:6-7 Dear Lord Jesus, I want to be a man who gives you the quality and quantity of thanks of which you are so absolutely worthy. Not like a slow drip, a babbling brook, or a meandering stream, but like a geyser—a gospel geyser—spontaneously erupting with gratitude any and every moment. I want to overflow with thankfulness, to the praise of your glory and grace! I have every reason to be like the healed Samaritan leper, who with a stunned heart and irrepressible gratitude returned to give you heartfelt thanks (Luke 17:11-17). I return today, and I want to return every day, to express my profound thankfulness. From the first nanosecond I was given faith to receive you as Savior and Lord, I was fully and firmly rooted in your righteousness and love. Now, completely forgiven, I have no other righteousness than yours. Just as I cannot add one iota to your righteousness, I can never, ever be separated from your love, and your love, alone, is better than life. You have already set me free from the penalty of sin, you are continually setting me free from the power of sin, and one day you will set me free from the very presence of sin. Jesus, I want to live in you—reflecting upon your glory with an unveiled face and marinating in the riches of your unfailing grace. I want to be built up in you, maturing by the same grace that saved me, being liberated for the race that you’ve set before me. I want to be strengthened in you, forgiving others as you have forgiven me; forbearing with others as you forbear with me; accepting others as you accept me—loving as your beloved. Lord Jesus, how I would love to be already done with all of my carping and droning, all whining and complaining, all boohoo-ing and Eeyore-ing, and with every other expression of ingratitude. But until that Day, rise up in me this day, and set my heart, voice, hands and feet free to love you and serve those around me. Oh, Fountain of Grace, Oh, Artesian Spring of Life, set me free. So very Amen I pray, in your glorious and grace-filled name. -for more from Scotty Smith, go to his blog here.
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Lake Wylie Camp Thunderbird Address
One Thunderbird Lane Lake Wylie, SC 29710 Registration is Friday from 4:30 - 7. Make sure you eat (on your own) before the meeting that night, which starts at 7:30pm. We’ll be done Sunday by lunch. Saturday morning through Sunday morning meals are covered. If you are riding with somebody else, make sure to give them gas money! Fall Getaway packing list · Casual clothes · Sporty clothes (Saturday afternoon sports) · Swimsuit (if you think you might want to swim or canoe) · Barn dance attire · Bedding (sheets/blanket for a twin or a sleeping bag) · Towel for shower · Pillow · Bible · Journal/pens · Flashlight (if you want it) · Sweatshirt · Rain jacket or umbrella · Money for gas and meal on the way up · Toiletries · Sports stuff (like Frisbees or anything else you have) “God’s concern is worldwide. How the church has responded to that mandate is also clear in the light of history. All too frequently the Church has fallen into lethargy in relation to its world-wide obligations. But God does not leave Himself without a witness. Whether it be a Nicolas Von Zinzendorf, a Samuel Mills, a C. T. Studd, a Robert Wilder, a John Mott, a Jim Elliot or a hundred others who could be named, God singles out a man to prophesy to His church. And with remarkable frequency that man has been a student.” – David Howard Out of the 17 million college students in the U.S. (90 million worldwide), a growing number of freshmen would identify themselves as being Christians, by which they sincerely mean “Christ followers,” not “Our family has a Christmas tree instead of a Hanukkah bush.” Yet, however you want to quantify it, or whatever metric you use, this growing number has not translated into a growing influence for Christ. On most campuses our heads rarely rise above sea level to be recognized as anything more than another club or subculture, listed in the student activities manual under “Christian Groups,” sandwiched between “Chess Club” and “Cross-Country.” It would be more accurate to say that we, who ought to be the salt of the earth, have instead become its vanilla extract. As I move from campus to campus, I look for revolutionary Christians who will stand up and say they are committed to living for Christ, no matter what the cost and no matter what they might have to sacrifice. But it is hard to find such Christians. I’ve been to more worship services than I can count, and I’ve heard students voice vehement conviction in the lyrics of their praise. I just don’t see the follow-through. And I’ve been in the follow-through business. When students said they wanted to go and serve Christ around the world, I’ve set up the trips and witnessed firsthand the discontinuity between the worshiping multitudes who claim “I’ll sing your praises to the world” and the handful who actually get on a plane. Well, it wouldn’t take much effort to keep things on autopilot and continue to grind out mediocrity. But let’s not. Instead, I want you to pause and honestly ask yourself: Is there revolutionary Christianity on my campus? Is there an immense amount of spiritual power being released where I attend college? First Corinthians 4:20 has exploded like a bomb in my mental and spiritual life. It says, “The kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power” (nasb), meaning, unlike every other human club or activity, the Christian life is not defined by its terminology (saying or singing the right words), nor can it be reduced to a program (doing the right activities). The Christian life is primarily about spiritual transformation through spiritual power, manifested in spiritual community—a work of God’s power, not ours. In light of 1 Corinthians 4:20, here are the questions to ask if you want to diagnose the spiritual vitality of your Christian group on campus: Is spiritual power being manifested in answered prayer? Is there spiritual power at work, leading others to Christ and energizing students to witness? Is there spiritual power to resist temptation and overcome evil? Is there spiritual power to move others for God and move God down to us through prayer? Is there spiritual power to disciple others in a way that is life changing? Is there spiritual power to love enemies, to pray for them, to do good for them, and to draw them to Christ? Is supernatural power being exerted? On most campuses the honest answer to those questions would be that the evidence of supernatural, life-transforming power is severely lacking. Living with Impotence When we look at life on campus, what we see are students immersed in sexual relationships, enslaved to pornography, and obsessed with dating (appearance, exercise, clothes, and so on). That’s not some finger-wagging accusation but simply a statement of fact; the majority of those engaged in this sexualized lifestyle lack the capacity to withdraw even if they desired to. Against this backdrop I wish I could say that Christians stand as shining beacons of purity, but you and I both know that’s not true. The degree to which, and the percentage to which, Christians struggle with these issues are not remarkably different from those for nonbelievers. Not only is there missing power to fight such temptation, but our sexual dalliances drain us of the limited spiritual reserves we do have. Lust, sex, and pornography have diluted and neutralized our spiritual power. When there is a lack of spiritual vitality, joy, and zeal, Christianity drifts toward legalism: adherents define themselves by what they don’t do rather than by what they do and what they are—Christ followers. The result is that on many campuses we are not perceived as a radical community of transformed individuals but as the local “abstinence club,” refraining from all activities fun and enjoyable and judges of those who participate. Many are straddling the fence for Jesus Christ, with one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom. One student volunteered, “I’m not sitting on the fence. I’m lying on top of it.” We lack the spiritual power to immunize us to the heart disease of materialism, choking off our souls like arteries clogged with mayonnaise. We smuggle in the American dream, cleverly packaged in Christian/family verbiage to avoid guilt detection—going in quest of a Christian spouse, Christian house, Christian car (fish on the bumper), Christian computer (Bible verse screensaver), parental and peer approval, financial security, and travel. Dress it up in Sunday church clothes, but it’s still the American dream: the pursuit of happiness … materialism. This may seem harsh, but as you look around, it seems Christians have done the one thing to Christianity that even Christ’s enemies could not do. Christ’s enemies scourged Him, mocked Him, beat Him, tried Him falsely, hung Him on a cross, jammed a crown of thorns on His head, stuck a spear in His side, and finally sealed Him in a stone-cold tomb. Centuries after His resurrection, His enemies denied that He ever existed. But with all this, we Christians have dealt Christ a more damaging blow. We have not killed Him, but we have made Him boring. Our Need for Power I don’t say any of this as an alarmist, pessimist, or cynic. Lamenting our witness, critiquing the Christian subculture, or berating our failures does none of us any good. In fact, I’m rather optimistic: I truly believe that we could have an impact for Christ beyond anything we have ever experienced. But the journey toward that destination must begin with truthful analysis. It does not begin with our Christian witness as we would like it to be, or wish it were, but as it is currently being lived out on campus—clearly with a lack of spiritual power. Several million Christian college students around the world have a desperate need for power, holiness, and New Testament vitality to characterize their lives. The changing of these students’ lives would have a profound impact on the millions who do not know Christ, no doubt resulting in the entrance of hundreds of thousands into the kingdom. We must ask, then, what is the solution to our spiritual impotence? In reality there are a number of things. But the most comprehensive answer, the one I’m proposing in this book, is that what we need, what we really want and long to see, is revival and awakening on our campuses and in our lives—a holy fire bringing heaven down to earth. We long, as the prophet Habakkuk did, to see and experience God’s power: “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known” (Habakkuk 3:2). Would it not be amazing to see God renew His awesome deeds in our day? I’m not sure what that would look like, but--oh, God!—what I would give to see it. And deep within my heart, I honestly believe we are going to see it, if we will meet God’s conditions for revival. I believe God wants to move across the world’s six thousand-plus campuses, sweeping them up into a holy fire, causing believers to get off the fence and live passionately for Him and bringing multitudes of new believers into His kingdom. I think He wants to take the inverted university world and turn the entire system right side up. -From "let’s turn the college campus right side up" in Fireseeds of Spiritual Awakening by Dan Hayes. To order the book, click here or ask a Cru staff member for a copy. The Bible has something to say about the Olympic games.
“Everyone who competes in the games,” writes the apostle Paul, “exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Corinthians 9:25). Comments John Piper, When Paul wrote these words to the Corinthian Christians, he assumed that they all knew about the games. The Olympic Games took place in Greece every four years without interruption from 776 BC until they were suppressed by the Emperor Theodosius in AD 393. That's 1,169 years. Everyone knew about the games. So Paul didn't have to explain the games. Everybody was aware of the games then. And everybody is aware of the games today. Why would the Christian Scriptures mention the games? To help us upgrade our two weeks of Olympic watching by opening our eyes to what they have to say about God, the gospel, and the Christian life. Transposing the OlympicsThe good Brit C. S. Lewis (who’d be happy to see London host the games) would call it “transposition” — taking in the Olympic games, engaging and entertaining as they are, and seeing through them, and beyond them, to the ultimate realities to which they point in God’s created world, spring-loaded at every turn to teach us about redemption. Continues Piper, the apostle Paul took the well-known Olympic games and taught the Christians to transpose them into a different level, and to see in the games a reality very different than everyone else is seeing. He said in effect, "The games are played at this level of reality. They run at this level. They box at this level. They train and practice and deny themselves at this level. They set their sights on gold at this level. "Now I want you to see all that at another level. I want you to transpose the temporary struggles and triumphs of the Olympic Games onto a different level of reality — the level of spiritual life and eternity and God. When you see the athletes run, see another kind of running. When you see them boxing, see another kind of boxing. When you see them training and denying themselves, see another kind of training and self-denial. When you see them smiling with a gold medal around their neck, see another kind of prize." That's what Paul was trying to do in this text [1 Corinthians 9:23–27] for the Christian Corinthians, and that is what I am trying to do . . . for you. I want you to transpose what you see and hear into a different key. Every time you turn the television set on, I want you to hear God talking to you through the games. If I understand Paul in this text, the games . . . are meant to be seen and heard by Christians as a tremendous impulse to fight the fight of faith and run the race of life with nothing less than Olympic passion and perseverance. . . . You will see in [the Olympics] this week the path of discipline and pain that athletes are willing to pursue for one gold medal and an hour in the glory of human praise. I urge you as you watch to transpose what you see from games into ultimate reality. Above all remember this: what God offers you and pledges to you in the gospel and in the prize and in the crown is 10,000 times more valuable than all the gold . . . . David Mathis wrote this article for Desiring God. For more, see Piper’s two-part series, “Olympic Spirituality,” from the summer of 1992: Part 1 (“Beyond the Gold”) and Part 2 (“How Then Shall We Run?”). “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
Over the years, there have been numerous occasions where people have come up to me after I was finished speaking to share with me a tragedy in their life. Many of these stories were heartbreaking and difficult to hear. If you hear a lot of hard stories, it is tempting to not really listen to the person. Instead of serving them well, you give them some trite Christian clichés to apply to their pain, but in the end you offer them no hope. One time I was visiting with a friend who is a pastor and a biblical counselor. He said to me, “Remember, nothing is wasted.” That has always stuck with me. The reality is that God wastes nothing. While God does not do evil, he uses all things to bring glory to himself, to draw people to Jesus, and to bring deeper purpose and meaning to the Christian’s life. As I continue to reflect on this truth, I have realized that Paul’s statement in Romans 8:28 is not only true, but also life-giving. God really is able to use all things for good, for those called according to his purpose. GOD CAN USE THE HORRIFIC This has been true in my life as well as in the lives of those around me. Even the most tragic, horrible, and sinful things have been used to open doors with the lost, to connect with those who are hurting, and to point people to Jesus. For instance, I was in a car crash when I was 17 that resulted in the death of a friend. It was through that tragedy that I was led to the truth of Jesus Christ. God has used that horrific time as a way for people to be connected with Jesus through the sharing of God’s story through mine. I also know of people who have taken the abuse they’ve endured, and allowed Jesus to use it to help them connect with abuse victims and to point them to Jesus. Paul writes that God uses all things to work together for good. He can and will use your past, your horrific sin, and whatever else you believe is beyond the grace of Jesus. Living in the guilt of our past inhibits us from living in the freedom and purpose of our future together in Christ. In Ephesians 2:10, Paul writes, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Therefore, we are able to receive the transforming grace of Jesus, learn from our past, and trust that not only does he use all things for good, but we are now his workmanship, commissioned for good works that he has set beforehand. 5 THINGS TO REMEMBER Here are a few helpful things to remember moving forward. 1. ACKNOWLEDGE JESUS Jesus is the only hope you have to experience redemption. This holds true for all aspects of your healing and ministry, not just salvation. 2. YOUR STORY IS HIS STORY IN YOU When you share your story, the focus should be how Jesus has rescued you. Your experiences are the illustrations that point back to him. 3. DON’T GLORIFY YOUR FORMER SIN Glorify the one who forgave it. It is tempting when you are trying to establish rapport to make light of your sin, or to make it sound glorious. This temptation should be avoided. The purpose in sharing your story should be connecting with people, and then pointing them to Jesus, not connecting them to you and leaving them there. 4. YOU MAY NEED HELP GETTING TO THE GOOD There are situations and circumstances that are difficult to find healing and redemption in on your own. You may be helped through your community of faith, a biblical counselor, or a combination of both. There is no shame in needing some help. 5. YOU ARE NOT ALONE It is very likely that you are not the only one to have experienced what you have in your past. There are others who have been through something similar and your experience with Christ might be what God uses to draw that person to himself. This is not a call to forget your past. It is an opportunity to allow Jesus to redeem it and use it for his glory and for your enjoyment. Your life can and should be used as an illustration for those who will believe (1 Tim. 1:15–16). This can be a very slow and hard road, but wherever you are on this journey just know, nothing is wasted. This article was written by Casey Cease for The Resurgence. For this article and others like it, go to http://thereserugence.com. Below is a true story of how God changed one freshman's life. As you read, ask yourself, "where do I find myself in this story?" This fall, might you, like AJ, have an opportunity to help a freshman like Sam discover what really matters? Or, are you more like Sam? Could God be calling you to find true, lasting satisfaction in Him? Take a moment to put yourself in the shoes of this upcoming freshman class, and pray that God would open their hearts to Him and His great love! When Sam attended his first week of college, he was not looking for a Christian group, in fact it was not on his radar at all. Raised in a Christian family, he routinely went to Sunday School and youth group. However, when he started high school, he questioned the reality of God. By year 12 he was less interested in church, starting on a destructive path fueled by the approval of friends and lust of the world. After an unexpected break-up with a girlfriend, Sam was shaken. He says: “I was dating a girl from youth group. She went to some camp, came back and didn’t talk to me for a week. She said ‘God’s telling me that it’s not His plan for us to be together.’ I was like, ‘He didn’t tell me that!’ I took it really bad.” Sam found solace in drinking. During his gap year after high school, he began clubbing, eventually pushing boundaries by experimenting with drugs like ecstasy. “I wasn’t happy. I knew something was wrong,” says Sam. When the first week of classes rolled around, it had been two years since Sam attended church. That week, Cru ran a booth where they handed out spirituality surveys. Sam filled one out. A few days later, he received a call from a missionary AJ. Although hesitant to meet AJ, Sam did. Through their first meeting, God began to turn Sam’s life around. AJ was there to listen, but strongly prompted Sam to make a decision about what he already knew to do. Sam checked out his first Cru group meeting and was refreshed by people different from his friends. They were not trying to impress each other and talked about things that really mattered. Sam started attending church again. Sam began to recognize his sensual life of lust and drugs was eating him alive, and he could not break free. He says: “During the worship session I was on my knees and was crying; I was a mess. I knew something wasn’t right--something had to change. I remember surrendering my life to God.” From that moment the pleasures that consumed him lost power, and he began seeing victory over the sins that had plagued him. The satisfaction Sam finds in pleasing God far outweighs his old habits, and he now lives with a passion to do what God is calling him to do. He lives in the ecstasy of new life in Jesus. Having open, honest and accountable friends from Cru has been a huge encouragement. Furthermore, being discipled by AJ has made a lasting impact on Sam’s life. He says: “Every time I share my story, it just reminds me I have a lot to be thankful for. It’s God that has brought me this far. I can never go back.” Sam is now happily married to a wonderful young lady named Eldora. This story was written by Gina Liu on June 25 2012. You can find more stories like it at www.cru.org. College should be a temporary season of academic preparation and personal growth to propel a lifetime of effective service to God and neighbor. It should be a launching pad into all that goes with responsible Christian adulthood. Yet for some, it’s a time when they abandon the Christian faith, displaying that they never really belonged to Christ (1 John 2:19). For others, their faith remains intact, but they waste their college lives with video games, partying, and other frivolities—an expensive vacation funded by Mom, Dad, and debilitating student loans. Today, seven out of ten high school graduates immediately go on to college, but about 30% will never become sophomores, and about 50% will not have graduated even six years later.[1] Many who do graduate move right back home with their parents, assuming little responsibility and armed with little ambition for Christ. Thrive at College I’m convinced that you should not just survive college but thrive at college. Don’t just maintain your faith, but really come to own it — growing thick, strong roots (1 Timothy 4:12). Don’t just squeak by classes with as little effort as possible, but strive to discover your calling — what God uniquely wired you to do — and to love God with all your mind by giving it your very best (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Socially, college is a season for making life-long friendships — not just the kind you have a great time with (good as that is) but the kind that spur you on to love, trust, and follow God. Pursue relationships that help you put away childishness, grow in maturity, increasingly make wise choices, and “expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.” And who knows? Maybe one of these friends will become a fabulous husband or wife. College is a time for assuming responsibility, for becoming a disciplined steward of time and money, for recognizing that recreation is a gift of God to be enjoyed in measure but never to dominate our lives. Rather, when properly pursued, recreation empowers us for our work rather than distracting us from our work. As a student, remember that your work is learning (studying) so that you can, for a lifetime, increasingly love God with a well-trained mind, a mind that can identify key questions, pursue understanding, dissect arguments, discover logical fallacies, and communicate effectively. Be Trained to Make a Difference College is an opportunity to get the training you need to make a difference in the world — by becoming a business person, an engineer, a doctor, a teacher, a historian, a physical therapist, a husband, a wife, a parent, who sees God’s lordship extending to every area of life and every corner of the globe. It’s a time to take the gifts God has given you and develop them into finely-tuned skills — the kind that can really serve and benefit other people (some of whom may even pay you). It’s a time to become a man or woman with unshakable character and faithfulness — the kind that can be given increasing areas of responsibility, and who can eventually rise to leadership. It’s a time to honor all that your parents did for you by learning to own your decisions, even your mistakes, as you embrace a full-orbed, God-dependent adulthood. Alex Chediak is an associate professor of engineering and physics at California Baptist University and the author of Thriving at College: Make Great Friends, Keep Your Faith, and Get Ready for the Real World! (Tyndale House Publishers, April 2011). Learn more about Alex on his site, and follow him on Twitter or Facebook. (This post originally appeared at Desiring God’s blog. Reposted with permission.) [1] “College Enrollment and Work Activity of 2010 High School Graduates,” United States Department of Labor, April 8, 2011. Mike Bowler, “Dropouts Loom Large for Schools,” U.S. News and World Report, August 19, 2009.
Family. This is perhaps one of the most powerful single words in our language. For most people, the word 'family' comes loaded with vivid images, memories, and emotions. For some, those are bright, beautiful memories. For others, those are dark, painful emotions. For all of us, however; our only true hope and peace comes from knowing that the one truly good Father has adopted us as His own children, and brought us into His own family. Still though-our parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and others are dear to us. And even if most of those in your family love Jesus Christ and are walking closely with Him, all of us know at least one or two people in our family who are far from God. As author and Cru staff member Randy Newman writes, "Jesus is off limits for a lot of families and friends-or at least that's how it appears sometimes. Why does sharing the good news with a stranger often feel less frightening than telling those you love most?" This week, we share a video clip where Randy talks about that very topic: Bringing God Home. Most college students (that means you!) will spend at least a few weeks of significant time with family during Summer break. So, take a deep breath, think about that family member you love greatly, and yet know that they haven't embraced Jesus Christ, and pray for them. Then press play, and let Randy Newman encourage you. For more helpful videos on sharing your faith and helping others know Jesus, check out http://overflowtoday.com.
“They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.” Isaiah 40:31
Trusting God is not comfortable. It doesn’t belong in a Hallmark card picture — a colorful valley, a quaint village, a church steeple, with a sentimental slogan. Trusting God can be extremely uncomfortable, even painful. Rabbi David Kimchi, one of the early Hebrew lexicographers, defined the verb “wait” in Isaiah 40:31 with reference to the medieval German verb for “twist.” That is, waiting on the Lord can involve tension and pressure and stress. How could it be otherwise? Waiting is pent-up irresolution. It is not a light thing to wait trustingly for the Lord: “Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, . . . so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us.” Psalm 123:2 “My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.” Psalm 130:6 “I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.” Psalm 143:6 My point is this. You may be going through hell right now. You may be bewildered, gasping, frightened. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t trusting God. It might mean you are trusting God. Isaiah really understood something. He understood that it’s in this tension that our strength is renewed. How so? There is something about coming to the end of ourselves and our own strength and wisdom — that’s when our hearts finally crack open, and the love of God pours in. When we have nothing of our own left, when nothing will suffice but that which is directly and immediately of God, that’s when God alone is our sufficiency, and we find him to be so. -Ray Orlund is Lead Pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee and a Council member with The Gospel Coalition. You can read more of his thoughts at http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/rayortlund/ If only we had more money.
If only I had a date... If only I could get my house really clean. If only I had alone time. If only I could sleep more. Feeling inadequate and out of control of any number of life stresses, I feel small and weak. Instead of being humbled, I tend to reject the discomfort of my need, and become prideful. I demand control, believing that if I regain control, I will be restored. My wandering, grumbling heart searches for some end to my familiar fatigue. IF ONLY I’D HOPE IN GOD Here’s what my “if only’s” tell God: what he has given me in some moment is not good and I’ll hope when the conditions are met, not in him. Exhaustion is an occasion to demand, grumble or to find hope in God, again. Recently, frazzled and mumbling “if only’s,” I opened Psalm 23 with a chaotic heart, throwing a silent fit with God: "OK, fine! I will read my Bible. I know that is what you want." The Psalm surprised and confronted me with words that exposed the sin of my misplaced hope. God whispered through his word: "Daughter, I am your only restoration." I foolishly believe I could escape exhaustion by submitting my “if only” list for God to fulfill totally missing that he is my greatest restoration. If God would just give me sleep or alone time, then I would be OK. But God, relentless in his faithfulness, reveals all the measly hopes of my soul being restored, because nothing actually satisfies a craving heart more than Jesus. When I’m tired, weak, and tempted, he gently leads me to himself. “He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” Psalm 23:2 It is he who restores my soul. All of the alone time and money in the world can’t compare to God’s presence. Clean homes and date nights are blessings, but meaningless without God’s presence enjoyed. Sure, sleep boosts my weary body, but my soul is only restored by Jesus. GOD IS THE MEANS AND THE END It’s not magic, though. I don’t just limp toward God’s word, open and magically return to my joyful and rested self. Sometimes, it is a tooth and nail fight to resist grumbling and doubt in my heart. To let God restore us is to want him more than the effects of being restored. Get that? It’s like wanting coffee merely for an energy boost, rather than its taste and aroma, too. God is not the way to get rest. He is both the way and the destination for our soul rest. A QUIET, PEACEFUL JOY As we submit our hearts to Jesus, weariness becomes a quiet joy. Our gloom turns to peace. God’s word gives us hope, as our weakness is laid at his feet, telling us that his power is made perfect in our weakness. The precious gift of weakness shows us how powerful Jesus really is. It’s amazing. Wearily, we can come to the Father and he always meets us, comforts us, speaks to us, and holds us close. The only soul restoration is in God alone, and there’s no “if” to it: he always satisfies. By Trisha Wilkerson for The Resurgence. For more resources like this, go to www.theresurgence.com |
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