Gods choices

I read with children at a local elementary school and this week was the start of reading with students for this new school year. One of my students in 2nd grade shared how in 14 days he was going to have a new baby brother and that he was excited. I asked him if he had other brothers and sisters and he said he had a younger brother. He then shared that his Dad wanted a boy and so did his brother, but his Mom wanted a girl and so did he. Then he said but God wanted a boy, and He got to choose!!!!!

That simple comment has really stayed with me all week and challenged me! How do I look at God when He gets to choose things in my life that maybe goes against what I want? Do I fight against Gods choices, or do I submit to His far greater understanding and accept that His ways are higher than mine? (Isaiah 55:8-9)

As I submit and see His choice is only born out of love for me and knowing things that I don't know, can I then get as excited about His choice as I would if I had my own choice?

Lord, help all of us to submit to Your plans and purposes and Your choices with a grateful and excited heart and with a childlike faith that is so precious to You.

Resting in the Stillness

I have been thinking about rest and what it means in the truest sense. We all need those times of rest and refreshment that only Jesus can give. So I looked up rest in Hebrew and the deeper meaning in the word.

What I found was amazing.

Rest: An ever changing stillness, place of repose, a place to gather energies and faculties to prepare for whatever beauty or challenge tomorrow holds.

An ever changing stillness...wow...that changes my perspective of what rest is. A stillness at my core, not static but changing. Rest is not a stillness that does nothing, but within that rest there is a changing from within that only Jesus gives!

A place of repose....my place of refuge, my high tower, a place where I can run to, where I cannot be touched by men or the enemy. How I long to always be in that place.

A place to gather energies......maybe a place to get ready, to renew my spiritual strength for what tomorrow will hold. There will be beauty in tomorrow, but I can almost be sure there will be challenges...but in my rest of today, I will be equipped, I will be strong in His strength...how wonderful that is.

Today I want to be in that true place of rest......being made strong, confident, gathering my energies for whatever comes....I breathe rest in with every breath I take and breathe anxiousness and stress out.

May you find your true rest and refreshment today in His perfect stillness.