Rest in His Shadow

On July 3rd, my mom called me from Florida to tell me about a bell hop she had met.  "Jenny, it was amazing," she said.  "As he was talking I was picking up on scriptures.  His speech was peppered with lines I knew from the bible.  He wasn't quoting scripture to me.  He was living and breathing the word.  So I asked him if he was a christian, and he of coarse with joy in his eyes, he confirmed my suspicion. He told me all about how he came to Christ and how he now lived out his life for his Lord."
While I was listening to her talk, one thing was made very clear about this man's life, he loved his God and he put a lot of value on memorizing the scripture.  One scripture verse was made very clear to me as she talked, Psalms 91.  "This," he told her, "is something that everyone should know by heart."

Well, the conversation ended and I went ahead and looked up Psalm 91.  Really the very first line stuck with me all day.  "Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty."  Rest!  That word, that one word is something that I hadn't had in over a month.  REST!  I've been unable to sleep for so long and I really did not know why.  I just couldn't sleep.... Rest....


July 4th, I read Oswald Chambers "My Utmost for His Highest".  One of God's Great "Don'ts"  Worry and Fretting, I didn't think I had been worrying and fretting till I got to the end of that daily reading and saw, “'abide under the shadow of the Almighty' (Psalm 91).  'Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about whatever concerns you. All our fretting and worrying is caused by planning without God.'"
So now I knew I had a theme and began watching and waiting for God to show me what was going on.  For a whole week I have been receiving messages from God about how I have been living in doubt and about what I am supposed to do from hear in order to proceed in faith.  July 5th, Don't Plan Without God, July 6th, Visions Become Reality, July 7th, All Efforts of Worth and Excellence are Difficult, July 8th, Will to be Faithful, July 9th, Will You Examine Yourself, July 10th, The Spiritually Lazy Saint, July 11th, The Spiritually Vigorous Saint.  All week!  All week I have been bombarded with Rest in God for He has this thing.  Do your job and stay faithful to Him.

The more I learn about the team I am suddenly immersed in, the more I discover we all have the same dream and vision that we were given long before we were ever even introduced.  Why do I doubt?  Why do I fret?  Why do I still not have the faith I need to have?  I don't feel like I can really "do" anything.  And Yet, here we go.  (July 9th), "We say, 'Oh, if only I really could believe!' The question is, 'Will I believe?' No wonder Jesus Christ placed such emphasis on the sin of unbelief. 'He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief' (Matthew 13:58). If we really believed that God meant what He said, just imagine what we would be like! Do I really dare to let God be to me all that He says He will be?"

I have a job, you have a job, and that job is to do what God has given you to do no matter how we feel about it at that moment.  I don't always feel like I believe, but that does not matter.  My faith is demonstrated through my life and how I live each day.  We are not meant to fret and worry. We are meant to be obedient and walk this life out with Christ, even if the ending may look very different from what we visioned.  One thing is certain, it will.  We cannot see what He sees.  We can only work out our own salvation every day.  Everyday we are to live an obedient life and be Christ to others, no matter our own unbelief.  He is bigger than my unbelief, this I know! 

I am to rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I am called to live my life for Him, no matter how hard it gets. (July 6th), "We always have a vision of something before it actually becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say that there is no point in even trying to continue. Instead of the vision becoming real to us, we have entered into a valley of humiliation... God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience."  I cannot give up.  We cannot wonder "what if?"  We are called to press forward toward the vision He is giving us, no matter what our own personal doubt or struggle is.  "God has to take us into the valley and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision."  Are you in the valley right now?  Can you persevere and make it through to the other side?  Can God trust you with the realities of the vision He has given you?  Sometimes, only time will tell and He is very patent!!