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Rest

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As I was reading the Old Testament lesson this morning, one verse just jumped out to me, from Exodus 33:

14 He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Just a short verse, but it says a lot to me. One of my favorite quotes is by St. Augustine, where he says, talking about our relationship with God,

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.”

As the father of two small children, I can assure you rest is a pretty awesome thing.  I do think, though, that many of us are restless.

We are restless with work.  With family.  With leisure.  We are anxious. We are stressed. We are worried.  We are afraid and frightened. We are angry. We are whatever. . . . .

We are not rested.  We are not resting.

Why?  Because we are seeking our rest, our comfort, our peace in places other than God. At least I tend to.  We tend to place so much worth on these other things.  Our status, our position, our reputation, our worth.

Your greatest worth comes from none of that.  You are not your job.  You are not your bank account.  You are not your position.

Today, you are a child of  God.  You are His.

Rest in that knowledge.  Rest in that truth.  Everything else, it will leave you restless. Everything else will leave you empty.

Only in God, do we find the rest than we really need.  And then, when we are well rested, we find that the rest of life is even better.

When we find our identity in God, we know our identity in everything else.  And, when we know we are His, all other things fall into place.

And even if they don’t, it’s ok. Because we are His.

Today, find your rest, no where else but in God.  Our hearts are restless until we find that rest in God.

Not Me!

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As I was reading through the scriptures for today, something from Exodus 32 really stood out to me.  It was the conversation Moses had with Arron after the golden calf.   They were talking, and this is that conversation:

21Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” 22And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn hot; you know the people, that they are bent on evil. 23They said to me, ‘Make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off’; so they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” 25When Moses saw that the people were running wild (for Aaron had let them run wild, to the derision of their enemies),26then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.

One of the things we see a lot in the Old Testament stories is this notion of – not me!  I didn’t do it.

Adam – did you eat the fruit?   Nope, the woman you gave me gave it to me.

Eve – did you eat the fruit?  Nope, it was the snake that made it happen.

Arron – did you let the people lose their minds?  Nope, they came to me and made me do it.

It’s a refrain I hear a lot from my two kids.  No me!  I didn’t do it!  Not me!  Not my fault!

It’s always someone else’s fault.  We see that in the Bible. We see it in our kids.  We see it in ourselves.

I know me, it’s easier for me blame others than to look within.  I don’t want to look within.  I’d rather blame you than work on me.  It’s less painful for me to lay my problems and my mistakes upon someone else than for me to look within myself and see what I need to fix.

Or rather, allow God to fix in me.

Sure, none of us are perfect. All of us fall. All of us make mistakes. That’s ok.  Instead of pretending like we are perfect, it’s better to admit our mistakes, take responsibility and work on what we can fix.

And know that even in our mistakes and failures, God’s love never, ever ends.

He doesn’t love us because of what we’ve done (or not done).  He loves us because it’s who He is.

He is love.

In spite of our mistakes.  He loves us.

Not our fault? I don’t know about that.

Being loved by God?  I do know about that. We are. Today, and each day.