Sunday, June 9, 2024

Weekend Words


"You chart the path ahead of me, and tell me where to stop and rest.  Every moment, you know where I am." (Psalm 139:3, LB)

As we planned our vacation each year, we made careful preparations.  After deciding where to go, a travel agency would chart our trip for us.  It supplied us with maps of the area.  Places of scenic and historical interest were marked.  Included were suggestions for motels and restaurants, everything to provide for our needs on the trip.  Having all this planned ahead made the trip easier and much more pleasant.

God has a planned path for each of us.  In Jeremiah 29:11 (Rotherham) we read, "I know the plans which I am planning for you, plans of welfare and not of calamity to give you a future and a hope."

Not only does our heavenly Father know His plans for us, but He has it charted.  "As thou goest step by step, the way shall be opened up before thee" (Proverbs 4:12, Free translation).

Being an all-wise God, He knows the importance of "rest stops" along the way.  Because He knows we may fail to take them ourselves, He includes them at the right places on our path for our benefit.

Not only does He give us rest stops to refresh us, but also to give us quiet times to think of Him and be aware of His personal love and care; to have a time of communion with Him.  After Jesus' disciples had had a busy schedule, He charted a "rest stop" for them.  "And he said unto them, come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile" (Mark 6:31).

Sometimes we feel God has forgotten all about us.  But the psalmist had learned God never forgets.  "Every moment you know where I am."

There is much instruction and encouragement in resting on God's Word.  We can be assured there is rest for us today wherever we are, whatever our situation.  This is not an outer rest of circumstances, but an inner rest of soul.  "So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath rest reserved for the [true] people of God" (Hebrews 4:9, Amplified).


"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." - Philippians 4:11

What produces the highest degree or state of contentment in your life?  The Apostle Paul, in the cold, damp prison cell in Rome, was condemned for preaching the Gospel.  Yet he could say that he had learned to be content.  How could he write this beautiful testimony to the Philippian church when his circumstances were so discouraging?  But Paul continued writing, "I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need" (v. 12).  Paul's life had been a hard one, not a bed of roses or an easy path, but he had learned through life's experiences the source of true strength.  Strength is feeling the Solid Rock under us when trials and temptations come.  It is having faith and confidence in Jesus.  Then the test will pass and we will still stand firm in Christ who strengthens us.  True contentment is when, no matter what the circumstance, our satisfaction is unshaken in our heavenly Father, the source of true contentment.

One day I went to visit my friend Mary, a community lady who had to be in hospital for a while.  As I talked with her, she began recounting her past life with an unfaithful husband and raising her family alone.  A shadow fell across her normally expressive face as she described her trials honestly but without self-pity.  Her life had been depressing and discouraging until she began going to church and found the Lord.  As she related the change in her life, her eyes took on a new sparkle.  She laid her hand on her chest and said, "Now I's happy, I's content with Jesus in here."  She continued telling how her friends now ask her why she doesn't get another husband.  But Mary said, "I don't listen to them.  Since I have Jesus, I's content - I's satisfied now!"

Mary knew the secret of contentment, and her joy influenced my state of mind as well.


Leaving All To God

As we go through life we learn more and more to doubt our own wishing and choosing, as we see how little really comes from our own ways and plans.  We learn not to choose at all ourselves, but to let God choose for us.  No doubt we miss heavenly blessings many a time, because we have not faith to take them in their disguise of pain and grief, preferring our own way to our Father's.  Then God sometimes lets us have what in our willfulness we persist in choosing, just to teach us that our own way is not the best.  We learn at last to plead, "Bless me, my Father," not daring to indicate in what manner the blessing shall come, but preferring that it shall be as God wills.


For the joys and for the sorrows
The best and worst of times
For this moment, for tomorrow
For all that lies behind
Fears that crowd around me
For the failures of my plans
For the dreams of all I hope to be
The truth of what I am

For this I have Jesus
for this I have Jesus
For this I have Jesus, I have Jesus...

For the weakness of my body
The burdens of each day
For the nights of doubt and worry 
When sleep has fled away
Needing reassurance
And the will to start again
A steely-eyed endurance
The strength to fight and win 
(- Graham Kendrick)

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