Do you ever wonder that the things we deal with everyday are not meant for us? Do you ever feel off-track in the middle of our own life story? Do you ever sense that we don’t have what it takes to deal with what is on our plate? Does life at times seem too hard? Do you ever think that maybe we live at the wrong address?
Listen to what the apostle Paul says about how each of us reached the place where we now live, love, and work.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. …. From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the exact times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”
Although many of the things that have shaped our lives are out of our control, they are under the careful oversight of God who not only created the world, but is the ultimate answer to everything that is wise, good, loving, and true.
He is our Father above, the Lord of heaven and earth. He has written our personal life account into his salvation story. He welcomes us out of our own small kingdom of self to be part of his wonderful, vast-as-the-sky kingdom.
Rather than working to leave us to our personal definitions of happiness, satisfaction and contentment, God is working so that so that we would know him in an intimate life- transforming way. So he will put us in situations that take us beyond the boundaries of our own temperament, strength, and wisdom. He does this so that in humility and weakness we will reach for the help that only he can give us. He is working to help us let go of the things that we tend to hold to so close, not because he wants us to have less, but because he wants us to have so much more.
Paul’s describes a tender and loving God. He does not picture God as the ultimate, impersonal, absentee landlord leaving us to our own solitary devices. No, Paul reveals to us a God who understands our weaknesses, who sympathizes with our struggles, and welcomes us to reach out and find him.
So, even in moments of turmoil, we can breathe easy; not because we know exactly why God is doing what he is doing, but because we trust him to love us. Real rest is the result of a relationship, just the kind of relationship that God sent his Son, Jesus, to make possible and now invites you to have with him.