I heard this song at church last Sunday after a message on "peace in the midst of Chaos" I really love the words and how clear it paints a relationship with God that he offers all the time, no matter what the circumstance looks like. Gosh this makes me love God so much more. He has invited me to join in the rest that he himself is: Father Son and Holy Spirit- I am part of this perfect relationship... Actively participating from a position of REST- at the right hand of the Father in Christ because of the FINISHED work of the cross. Wow, is He after me or what?!

Still, soft quietly spoken voice
That persistently calls my name
And quickens my heart to come
And I come

Chorus: And I rest in the shelter of Your love
And I rest in the wonder of Your Grace
And I rest in the shelter of Your love
And I rest in the wonder of You

Embraced in the promise of You
Is rest for the weary soul
Releasing all that is mine <-- wow, that's the only way to do it! Give up my rights in order for
Him to work!
I reach for You

Take all the old and You make it new
Everything I give to You
You're the hope that can pull me through
Hallelujah
- skillet "Rest"

REST is the word God spoke to me today as my mentor and I were meeting Him in prayer. I was pretty frustrated because 1) I want to understand everything about everything and I cant and 2)I so often fear that I will be in the way of what He wants to do or is doing, and sometimes I am just because I am missing Him in the moment... The main way I do that is overanalyze and try to jump ahead to figure everything out.

Thank You Lord that I can't figure it all out- THANK YOU Lord that You are God and I am not!! Thank You Lord for bringing me to the end of myself and leaving me there so I can simply trust you! Thank You Lord that I can't and you can. I have no strength in and of myself. I am weak and I echo the words of Paul:
2 Cor. 5:5Of this same [man's experiences] I will boast, but of myself (personally) I will not boast, except as regards my infirmities (my weaknesses).

Paul even had special revelation from God which he talks about in previous verses, yet God allowed him to remain humble:
7And to keep me from being puffed up and too much elated by the exceeding greatness (preeminence) of these revelations, there was given me a thorn ([a]a splinter) in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to rack and buffet and harass me, to keep me from being excessively exalted.

And I know I don't even come close to what Paul understood about the Lord but just when I think I do know something the Lord reminds me that any wisdom I have is His... Any understanding is from HIM, and I am surrendered once again so that I know my life is totally from Him...

8Three times I called upon the Lord and besought [Him] about this and begged that it might depart from me; 9But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and [b]show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may [c]pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!

I know without a doubt that I can do nothing apart from Him and anything of power or worth is from Him alone. So often we are told to "BE STRONG, HANG IN THERE" blah, blah, blah. That's junk. How about be weak!? How about boasting in weakness so that "the strength and power of Christ may REST upon me!" Wow. Especially when circumstances are showing how out of control I am (as in I cannot control what happens to me or around me) What a shelter in the midst of confusion or stress or whatever your "chaos" may feel like! There is rest!

THEN the truth of our identity become precious when we are in this place of brokenness (end of self- so much so that we have to allow Christ to reign) It is such a gift that even in this place, at ground zero, we are given righteousness, sainthood, love, adoption as sons and daughters to never be forsaken, freedom to be ourselves, freedom to love with the infinite love of father instead of our own strength... Knowing that NONE of that is our own, but totally from Him- That's what makes it so precious! THAT is the identity truth we can LIVE out of! And guess what? Father is committed to our yielding to him from a place of brokenness... Think about a horse who gets broken so that it will yield to it's rider. . . Same with us. Who doesn't want to yield control to the Father who knows us best, and knows WHAT's best? That's why Paul can be glad in all circumstances, and I can too:

2 Cor 5:10-So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [[d]in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful [e]in divine strength).

Phil. 4:11-Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be (R)content in whatever circumstances I am. 12I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going (S)hungry, both of having abundance and (T)suffering need. 13I can do all things through Him who (U)strengthens me.

Don't fight the circumstances... Let the Lord embrace you in the midst of them and speak to your heart where he wants you to give Him control... where he wants you to admit your weakness so HE can show you clearly where He can be strong. He will give is ABOUNDING grace in the place of your weakness. His grace to rest when you wanna work it out yourself, His grace to turn from temptation if you will just ask Him, His grace to have joy instead of mourning, His grace to just BE instead of DO. Yep- thanks for reminding me of my weaknesses apart from you Lord so that you remind me of how you exchanged them all for YOU at the cross. Thank you for your strong, grace-filled, peaceful life that's living through me!

"The strength of weakness always consummates in victory through abounding grace and strength." -Jack Taylor You say there's no change in the circumstances? Well, it doesn't take a change in circumstance to bring victory. HE is victory and HE is in me! Therefore I will boast all the more in my weaknesses, like Paul did and like Jesus did, living on the earth in human form, totally dependent on His Father.

1 Corinthians 2
1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the spirits power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

So once again God delivered me from being in control- HE is in control and He will do what He wants. My job is just to trust Him, yield to Him, and acknowledge that I can do nothing apart from Him (John 15). What a great place to be! Totally desperate!

When God reveals truth, it makes no difference unless we respond. If there's a lie we know we have been living out of we have a choice: we must set our minds on the truth. Today we called it "REDECIDING":
1. Own responsibility (don't blame or make excuses) for feelings and behavior
2. Ask God to reveal the real issues. Why? To deal with the root of the problem.
3. REJECT that lie!
4. Believe the truth and RECEIVE it for yourself (why is this good news for you!? How does it affect your belief system?)
5. Yield (say Yes to Him and no to your self strength)to Christ in order to depend on Christ alone.
6. RISK NEW BEHAVIOR(act like who you are: Complete and righteous in Christ) ! Yep, try it out. Give that truth a chance by actually living and acting like it's true. You will be suprised how quickly it may become a reality. Don't let Satan convince you otherwise.

Other ways to freedom include
-forgiveness (yep, you no longer have to devote energy planning the demise of someone else... that 's GOD's responsibility. Beside, Christ has already payed the debt that you may feel like that person owes you!),
-Identification with Christ in His earthly walk (Jesus was in human form, totally depending on His Father... TOTALLY- read it in the word: "i am my father are one"),
-Relinquishment of rights (if i hang on to rights, i am saying that i still have some control(i can be independent of God, I am my own God), and if i still think I have control i am up for a big disappointment... isn't it GOD who is GOD, and I am not?),
-Acceptance of ourselves (right where we are at... not trying to fix ourselves but keeping our focus totally on Him as He forms Christ in us!).

Remember: God uses people and circumstances(two things that we have no control over) to FREE us to enter into WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST! (When we know who we are, we are free to be naked and unashamed; vulnerable and transparent because we are totally accepted in the beloved.)

FAITH is a CHOICE not a FEELING!!!!! Faith is what God asks of us. OUr responsibility is to choose to resist the devil's temptations and lies by taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ. We can hand it over to Him and the finished work of the Cross- He has given us authority over this because of His power at work inside of us!

From "How to Walk in the Will of God"
by Malcolm Smith

We are alive NOW, not waiting for that 'great thing' in the future:
"I was in grave danger of missing the wonder of today while I waited for tomorrow. I looked around at my friends. They were restless in their jobs, waiting for the job or vacation that would be the will of God."

What a joy it is to enjoy Him in the moment. It was such a relief this morning to know (not necessarily feel but just know in the depths of me) that as I tried to decide between peanut butter crackers or a chewy bar for breakfast that He was with me and was a companion in deciding.

"God in us is willing His will. His desired are expressed in us and He puts His mind in our so that we can say that we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:18). There are no secondary roads or permissive wills- Christ is the will of God. We are no longer obsessed with a place, but with Christ who is our life, the "yes" of God's will within us. ... THe wisdom of God was not an inevitable plan - it was a person living in me wherever I happened to find myself. It was no longer a matter of what i was doing, but Who I was expressing in what I was doing"

"The focus of God's wisdom is not a cold blueprint, but the person of the Lord Jesus Christ...God does not give us a list of rules or directions, but gives us Himself in the person of Jesus, and that Jesus in us by the Holy Spirit...God's perfect method for achieving His perfect plan is to put His will within us. It is not an elusive blueprint outside of us, but His Son within to be realized."

"He is not bound by one road to achieve His purpose"

"[the will of God] was not something outside of him to be discovered, but a "yes" to be found within his own desires...The Acts show us men who are in a vital unity with the Spirit, makinmg free decisions. In tha tunity the Spirit does not give us continual green lights, only red ones."

****"We miss the wonder of the moment by always looking ahead to the unusual and extraordinary 'will of God.' THe magnificent will fo God is to be found within every ordinary moment. THere is no such thing as the mundane or secular. when we were born again we entered the religious life, and wherever we might find ourselves, Christ is our life."

"WALK OUT NOW INTO LIFE AND LET CHRIST BE YOUR LIFE. HE IN YOU IS THE WILL OF GOD; AND YOU LIVING OUT OF HIM IS THE JOY OF THE LORD."

I pray that this frees you up to enjoy life in Christ!!

Truth is good stuff but it can't do it's job if we don't respond to it... if we dont walk in it... if we acknowledge it with our lips but deny it with our hearts. It's one thing to understand/see the light but another to step out in faith, in an act of our will because God is not gonna override our will. He is patient and kind, not overbearing or controlling! He NEVER acts out of character. (Neil Anderson) Our responsibility is to respond...and when we yield our will to Him that we WANT Him to do his thing, HE is the POWER behind it! (That's what willpower is: My will, HIS power! -Juan-carlos Ortiz) He's not going to make us choose or beg us to do so!

Believe it or not you are only as miserable as you allow yourself to be. He offers the grace and peace to lift you out of that situation (Psalm 40) Read any of the psalms and you will see the author shout out to God how he feels, but he is probably just making those feelings known out loud to the Lord, not stuffing them down, so that the author can vent them and can be brutally honest with his Father. The Lord sees our hearts and we just confess in agreement with what we know he sees- We have nothing to hide!! And He still loves us just the SAME! Once we do release all this which is inside though, it leaves so much room for him to come and fill us with Himself. Once again we see how only Christ can complete us. He truly is the answer to EVERYTHING.

satan's definition of a hypocrite:
acting different than how i FEEL

God's definition of a hypocrite:
acting different than who I AM.


How often do i justify totally acting out of my feelings, which are often in line with lies I believe instead of the truth about me (righteous, Holy, at peace).
Hmm...

I am currently going though a little something...causing some mental turmoil... so... one thing i do know is that i am in a fog but praise the lord for it. i don't just need Him every hour- i am so desperate that i need him every SECOND! My head is in such turmoil that i can't even think outside of the moment.. i can't even live in the moment- that is too long. i need Him every fraction of a second to sustain me. he has really brought me to surrender here and extreme dependence... the scary thing is i think that is how it's meant to be. total dependence, and more often than not it takes suffering, loneliness, trauma, you name it, it takes tough stuff to come to deeper and deeper dependence.(consider His servant Job) i am scared of what may be to come and that he may ask for more dependence but i can rest and know that i only have to take it one second at a time. i can trust him for a second as He guides me into the next. Boy, am I squeezing His hand tight!

PEACE does not lie in my circumstance!! I sometimes find myself trying to be a 'peace-maker' which is a flesh pattern of mine and fix things and make peace happen. what does God say? Well he doesn't promise life will be easy, stress-free, or always happy. He says simple 'be still and Know that I am God" In other words STOP! Stop trying to fix it yourself and make sense of things and know that I am God who provides all peace and sustenance. There is peace and rest in the midst of this. and you will find it no where else.

Colossians 3
He Is Your Life 1So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. 2Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ--that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.-the message

Aaah! It's not about our circumstances! It's about trusting Him, setting our hearts and minds on Him in each moment. Recongnizing our union with Him, participating in the divine invitation to rest- casting all our cares upon Him.