Heaven is not a resting place, where men may sleep out an eternity; there they rest not day nor night, but their work is their rest and continual recreation, and toil and weariness have no place there. They rest there in God, who is the center of their souls. Here they find the completion or satisfaction of all their desires, having the full enjoyment of God and uninterrupted communion with him.
~ Thomas Boston (1676-1732)
For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
~ Jeremiah 29:10-16
There is this truth in the life of a believer that is antithetical to the ways of this world. True work, when it is done by the leading of the Spirit within us is actually and truly restful.
Oh yeah, the body gets tired, and the mind might even get a bit worn… but there is a wholeness to a day when one of His beloved can lay our head on the pillow and simply know we have followed Him on the path of work He had set before us.
This writer had lost the path some years ago. But the One Who Is ever pouring out His Lovingkindness gives it all back… His Way. He did not do it in the way or ways i expected, but in ways always better than i could have hoped or imagined.
And into this one weak vessel He has poured a path and and agenda of work that would normally tire a 46 year old severely. But, as this utter fool simply maintains an understanding that he is but an utter fool, G_d seems to be amazing things in large amounts through one of the weakest links in His chain. i am not being falsely humble. Seriously, without the Spirit of Jesus hammering into and through my thinking and actions, i am but milliseconds from any number of unrighteous thoughts that only lead to unrighteous action.
But, when i am yielded and still in my Spirit, it seems that He can accomplish an incredible amount of work through my weak frame in even the course of one day. i often look back at a day and wonder how it all happened. i work and cook and parent and pray and clean and nap and play and love and eat and dance and fix and repair and write…. And like some Tom Bombadil, i a seem to finish my days more energized than when i started them. How can that be?
Can this writer be blunt?
i quit trying to handle my own schedule. i simply cast myself into His care and listen to Him tell me what to do. Some days i sleep a lot. Some days i just go to work and come home and do the husband and dad thing. Some days i do both. Some days i do all this and more. Quite frankly, i don’t really know what my days are always going to look like.
And that is the secret. His timing is perfect. He will show us the path, and keep us going right down the center line. We DO NOT have to find it.
You can do it too beloved. You know it is true. You can live a life that is actually running an energy surplus at the end of an epic hard day. But the cost is high. You have to give up the right to figure out your own path and let Him be the real Author and Finisher of everything in your life – not just your faith.
