One of my kids who has been struggling adjusting back to school came to me one evening asking me for things to make him happy. “Mom, I like this food and it makes me happy. Can I have some so I can be happy?” He said it so bluntly and honestly. He wanted something to fill him to make him happy. We often use superficial “feel goods” to help us ease something that doesn’t feel so good, something that is hurting, wounded, weary, worn out….
A commercial pops up: pumpkin spice and everything nice… and just like that my brain is telling me I need a coffee! A nice pumpkin spice coffee! And maybe a muffin too… I don’t really need it, but it sounds good and I would feel good having it… I am no different than my son. I just don’t say it as bluntly as he does.
Jesus tells us to come to Him… to bring to Him our weary hearts, our broken hearts, our wounds, and our exhausted worn-out selves (Matthew 11:28-30). Jesus tells us to come to Him, but He doesn’t stop there. He tells us to come to Him and He will give us rest. Rest. What a wonderful word. I just have to go to Him and trust Him with my heart, with my broken, with my hurting, with my wounds, with all of it. But I strive to make it better, to make it feel better. Maybe some of you do, too. My son’s voice echoes in my head asking for something to help him feel good and happy…Maybe at the heart of my striving is that I forget to trust. I forget to take it to Jesus and trust. I keep picking it back up and then trying to make myself feel better with superficial feel goods. In a recent sermon, it was highlighted that Satan’s goal is not to disprove God but to show Him as not trustable…
In a recent Bible study, it was pointed out by one of the other women that physical blessing can be taken away, but spiritual blessings have a fixed place in eternity. I have been going to church for many years but never heard it put quite like that. My son and I, in our own unique ways, have both reflected, trying to fill our needs and feel better with earthly physical blessings… Not that physical blessings are bad, but they have a different impact than the spiritual. How much different life could be if I chose to trust God and lean into Jesus with all my weariness and hurts from this crazy tough world. Leaning into Jesus, trusting him with my mundane hard and reaping a spiritual blessing that is fixed and can’t be taken away. In some ways, for me it is easier to trust with something bigger and more obvious but a little less easy to trust with the simpleness of being tired and worn out.
It feels incomplete to leave this without highlighting one more truth… the truth that God is doing more than just being there waiting for us to renew us and give rest. In the same Bible study, going through Ephesians chapter 1, it highlights the abundance and lavishness of God’s grace. God doesn’t just show us grace. He shows us lavish and abundant grace! When I find myself remembering to trust Him with my everyday things, He is ready and waiting with lavish and abundant grace! And rest! He is there waiting with it for you, too!
A commercial pops up: pumpkin spice and everything nice… and just like that my brain is telling me I need a coffee! A nice pumpkin spice coffee! And maybe a muffin too… I don’t really need it, but it sounds good and I would feel good having it… I am no different than my son. I just don’t say it as bluntly as he does.
Jesus tells us to come to Him… to bring to Him our weary hearts, our broken hearts, our wounds, and our exhausted worn-out selves (Matthew 11:28-30). Jesus tells us to come to Him, but He doesn’t stop there. He tells us to come to Him and He will give us rest. Rest. What a wonderful word. I just have to go to Him and trust Him with my heart, with my broken, with my hurting, with my wounds, with all of it. But I strive to make it better, to make it feel better. Maybe some of you do, too. My son’s voice echoes in my head asking for something to help him feel good and happy…Maybe at the heart of my striving is that I forget to trust. I forget to take it to Jesus and trust. I keep picking it back up and then trying to make myself feel better with superficial feel goods. In a recent sermon, it was highlighted that Satan’s goal is not to disprove God but to show Him as not trustable…
In a recent Bible study, it was pointed out by one of the other women that physical blessing can be taken away, but spiritual blessings have a fixed place in eternity. I have been going to church for many years but never heard it put quite like that. My son and I, in our own unique ways, have both reflected, trying to fill our needs and feel better with earthly physical blessings… Not that physical blessings are bad, but they have a different impact than the spiritual. How much different life could be if I chose to trust God and lean into Jesus with all my weariness and hurts from this crazy tough world. Leaning into Jesus, trusting him with my mundane hard and reaping a spiritual blessing that is fixed and can’t be taken away. In some ways, for me it is easier to trust with something bigger and more obvious but a little less easy to trust with the simpleness of being tired and worn out.
It feels incomplete to leave this without highlighting one more truth… the truth that God is doing more than just being there waiting for us to renew us and give rest. In the same Bible study, going through Ephesians chapter 1, it highlights the abundance and lavishness of God’s grace. God doesn’t just show us grace. He shows us lavish and abundant grace! When I find myself remembering to trust Him with my everyday things, He is ready and waiting with lavish and abundant grace! And rest! He is there waiting with it for you, too!
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