A Resting Heart

Have you ever had one of those days when you just can't seem to do anything right? Or maybe one of those weeks? You do your best... You try to get your work done well, you try to please the people around you, and you even try to be healthy! And sometimes it just doesn't work out. Sometimes your work is totally wrong and your boss lets you know it; sometimes that thing you did trying to bless your family and friends ends up alienating you even more; sometimes things conspire against you to mess up your healthy eating plan and work out routine.

It's been one of those weeks for me. My Creole wasn't so great, and my teacher let me know it... often and loudly.  I tried to be helpful and ended up using precious resources and making a mess. At times, lack of power meant no workout DVD, and a rough case of hives changed my varied diet to just pb and j.  

What's a girl to do when one of those weeks comes up? When you feel like everything you do is wrong when you're trying so desperately to do what's right? This morning, the Lord showed me something incredible:

Everything that I do apart from Him fails. 

There is nothing good in me on my own.

If anything good comes out of me, it is sheer grace! 

If left to myself and my carnal nature, how can anything turn out right? How could it be anything other than failure? But God offers me His righteousness through His Son Jesus Christ. Anything good in me comes from Him. Anything that I do right is a gift from Him. So all that I do must be commited to Him and done out of love for Him. And even if I mess up, He's bigger and greater than my mess and can undo the mischief that I have incurred if He so chooses. Anything good that you see in me is from God. 

What a humbling and sweet lesson! And what a load that has taken off my shoulders! That load that pushes me down with guilt when my attempts to do good fail miserably. I'm free from that guilt! My focus can now be on committing all to Him and asking for His grace to do stuff right. According to 2 Cor. 9:8, He is able to make all grace abound to me at all times, so that in all things at all times, I can abound in every good work. 

Grace. Sheer grace.

As I was thanking God for His abundant grace that is available to me, He reminded me of something that I had read in Creole this morning. I've been reading the Bible in Creole  cuz I think it's fun (i'm weird, i know :o), and I had read of a "ke poze." I love reading the Bible in another language-- it sometimes gives me a new mental picture of a concept. A "ke poze" is a peaceful heart, but the exact words used are "resting heart." The Lord reminded me that as more situations arise today in which I try to do stuff and feel like I'm failing, I can in that moment and every moment have a resting heart. A resting heart is one that asks Jesus for grace and righteousness for the task that is set before it and then rests that He'll provide the grace to accomplish that task or He can fix it afterwards if I mess up. What a relief!! 

I've been reading Brother Lawrence's Practicing the Presence of God, and he talks so sweetly of this concept! Here's a little excerpt:

"When an occasion of practicing some virtue was offered, he addressed himself to God saying, "Lord, I cannot do this unless Thou enable me". Then he received strength more than sufficient. When he had failed in his duty, he only confessed his fault saying to God, "I shall never do otherwise, if You leave me to myself. It is You who must hinder my failing and mend what is amiss." Then, after this, he gave himself no further uneasiness about it.

Brother Lawrence said we ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity, speaking to Him frankly and plainly, and imploring His assistance in our affairs just as they happen. God never failed to grant it, as Brother Lawrence had often experienced."


Thanks for listening to my thoughts, and I pray that you spend today with a resting heart knowing that He can help you do whatever He calls you to today!