Psalm 16.5-12
Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Brock and Adele have a handwritten copy of these verses framed in their home. In one of the
days of my deep winter, I was hanging with Lennon. We went in different directions on the
living room floor, looking for some missing puzzle pieces. When we met back at the unicorn
fairy, Lennon handed me the frame, “Look, Leon, Look!”
It was as if two-year-old Lennon knew I needed to be reminded of what I knew.
Laying on the floor with Lennon, working on the puzzle, I’m reminded the boundary lines have
indeed fallen for me in pleasant places, and I’m looking at my delightful inheritance, even in the
darkness of winter.
Soul rest is not a piece of God that has been lost. There is no searching required. Immanuel is
with us in the dark nights and the great joys of all our seasons.
It’s not that we don’t know. It’s that we don’t live what we know.
In his book Soul Keeping, Pastor John Ortberg describes a season in his life where he was
seeking answers for soul change. Ortberg recognized that he would benefit from the guidance of
his friend, Dallas Willard. Here’s an excerpt of their conversation.
There was only one place to learn about that. So I drove back to Box Canyon, I had a
whole day to spend with Dallas I told him that I felt frustrated because the people at the
church I served were not changing more. I asked him what I needed to do to help our
church experience greater levels of spiritual growth
Long pause – “You must arrange your days so that you are experiencing deep
contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday life with God.”
Huh?
"No," I corrected him. "I wasn't asking about me. I was asking about other people. I was
wondering what I need to make the church do. I was thinking about a book everyone
should read, or a program everyone should go through, or a prayer system everyone
should commit to"
"Yes, Brother John" he said with great patience and care. "I know you were thinking of
these things. But that's not what they need most. The main thing you will give your
congregation - just like the main thing you will give God - is the person you become. If
your soul is unhealthy, you can't help anybody. You don't send a doctor with pneumonia
to care for patients with immune disorders. You, and nobody else, are responsible for the
well-being of your own soul"
"I'm trying;" I said. "I learned long ago about the importance of having a quiet time when
I read the Bible and do daily devotions; I do my best to start each day that way."
"I didn't say anything about having a quiet time" he gently corrected again. "People in
churches - including pastors - have been crushed with guilt over their failure at having a
regular quiet time or daily devotions. And then, even when they do, they find it does not
actually lead to a healthy soul. Your problem is not the first fifteen minutes of the day.
It's the next twenty-three hours and forty-five minutes. You must arrange your days so
that you are experiencing total contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday life
with God."
"But how can I have total contentment, joy, and confidence?" I responded. "My work
isn't going nearly well enough. Lots of people are not happy with me. I am inadequate as
a pastor, husband, and father. Every week I carry the burden of delivering a sermon and
knowing I'll have to feel the pain if it doesn't go well."
"I didn't say you should experience total contentment, joy, and confidence in the
remarkable adequacy of your competence or the amazingly successful circumstances of
your life. It's total contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday experience of God. This alone is what makes a soul healthy. This is not your wife's job. It's not your elder's
job. It's not your children's job. It's not your friend's job. It's your job."
To live and love from a place of rest evokes a practical response that affirms our belief in the
promises of Jesus. If we’re not honest in our motives, “arranging our days” might become more
spiritual striving that only makes us more tired; but when our deepest desire is to live the way
God created us, “arranging our days” becomes a way we normally and naturally actively sow to
the Spirit, staying in step with the Spirit. It’s here, partnering with God, that our responses in the
differing chapters of life become more attuned and alive to the path of life, to joy in His presence in understanding and experiencing His eternal pleasures.
Questions to Consider:
How do you arrange your days in ways that bring you rest?
What might need you let go—belief, behavior, or person, to free you to fully believe and receive His rest?
I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Psalms 16:7-11
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