Resting in Him

The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens; and His Kingdom ruleth over all.”
Psalm 103:19

 

I’ve been told that I make life, so much harder than it has to be. I’ve heard it, in one form or another, from more than one person. I’ve been called crazy. And all because of my belief in Christ. More specifically because of the way I believe in Christ.

If that’s hard, if it’s crazy, then I’ll take it. There’s something so comforting in knowing that God is sovereign in all things, including me and my life. Who am I in the span of all time, in the working of God’s plan for people and eternity that he cares enough about me to draw me to him?

O Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
²     Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
    to still the enemy and the avenger.

³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?

Psalm 8:1-4

Who am I that in all time He chose me to be one of His?

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6

There is something so comforting in knowing that I am His. When I’m told that I make things harder I long to tell those saying it that it isn’t harder, it’s easier. Sometimes I do tell them that but it’s a concept I can’t seem to get them to understand. Life when lived on the Lord’s terms, by His commandments isn’t hard, it’s easy.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:29-30

But that is something that only those that live in Christ understand. Others just see what looks like a whole lot of restrictions. They don’t understand the contentment I find just being at home or enjoying my family. They don’t understand how I can get pleasure from studying a single object in nature, how I can sit and study a tree or a cloud and marvel that the Lord went to the effort to put it there for me. They don’t understand that my soul rejoices in knowing that my Lord controls all, that He has a plan and that I am just a small part of it.

In all of time, in all of eternity, out of the billions of people…He chose me to belong to Him. He placed wonders in His creation for me to discover and enjoy. He cared enough about me to give me people on earth to love and be loved by. He has provided for my every need. He guides me where I’m going even when my flesh wants to wonder and worry about what the destination is.

I can rest in Christ because I know His work in my life will be for my good, that it will all work out the way He intends it to. I can rest in peace because I know that my Lord is controlling my life. Even when bad happens I can know that He will work it for my good. I can rest in His plan knowing that He has worked everything out for me to have life and that He has supplied everything I need.

I can trust in Him and his plan for my life, for the lives of my loved ones, because I know that His plan was formed before the earth and that it will be completed as He intends. There is no person out there that can alter the plan of the Lord. It’s His plan, His creation, His will that will prevail through all of time, in all things. From the great to the miniscule…It’s all in the Lord’s control.

I am but a speck in that plan.

Thankfully He chose to be mindful of me, a mere vapor in the wind of His creation. For all of that…I’m given peace and comfort in Him. I can rest in Him. All of my faith is in the Lord, who controls everything.

Just think…the Lord that’s working out all of what is happening today is the same Lord that was there when Adam and Eve were placed in the garden, He’s the same Lord that caused a flood unlike any the world has ever known before or since, He’s the same Lord that rescued slaves, that came to earth to walk as man so that His plan might come to pass.

And He took the time to draw me to Him so that He could save me.

I didn’t ask for it, didn’t chose it. Didn’t ask to have this kind of faith in Him. And yet…He gave it to me anyway.

You did not choose me, but I chose you… John 15:16

He chose me…even when I wouldn’t have chosen Him. How much it hurts my heart to know there was a time I would have seen someone with beliefs like I have now much the way those that tell me I make things so hard do. I wouldn’t have wanted any part of that kind of belief, of that kind of life. And yet He chose me against all opposition I would have voiced if I’d known what was going on.

 “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”
Proverbs 16:9

“The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.”
Proverbs 16:31

There’s such peace in that. So much security in knowing He cared enough about me to choose me from all time. There’s nothing special about me, nothing that should have earned me favor in His eyes and yet He still chose me. It’s a comfort to my heart, to my soul.

The sovereign God of all time, of all of life, the Creator, the Savior, is directing my life for my good and to carry out a plan He set in motion long before I lived.

If that doesn’t make the faith…the rest…that’s found in Him, easy…what does it make it?

 “For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things
to whom be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:36