"Return to your rest ('comforting resting place'), my soul, for ('because') the Lord has been good to you." (Psalm 116:7)
There are some different opinions as to who wrote this Psalm. But I can tell you that Jews have been reciting it for centuries---- to this very day. And when you consider the history of the Jews.............. Maybe here would be a good place to "Count your many blessings, name them one by one."
And what about you and me today? Can we not command our soul to, as did the psalmist, the Jews through the centuries, the Followers of Jesus persecuted from the beginning, "Return to your rest.., because...."? We can put it this way, "Because the Lord has been good to you, my soul," you can, "Return to your comforting resting place...." Of course that, "place," is and always has been, as the hymn writer said, "near to the Heart of God." Remember how we "went" to "the Heart of God," when we surrendered our lives to Jesus? Do you remember? Yet I pray that it is more than a "memory." I pray it is a current, joyous reality. It is the goodness of our Lord Jesus which is the basis, the empowerment for our, "comforting resting place," not circumstances, not my perception of life.
Restlessness and an absence of peace come when we interpret life's events negatively, when we are more quick to say, "God doesn't answer my prayers," or, "Why does this happen to me?" Romans 5 says, "....Let us exult in our sufferings and rejoice in our hardships, knowing that hardship (distress, pressure, trouble) produces patient endurance; and endurance, proven character..; and proven character, hope and confident assurance...." Now if we do not want, "patient endurance," and prefer just giving up, if we reject, "proven character," for some flippant religious experience, or if we prefer despair and doubt over, "hope and confident assurance," then just keep complaining about what life "hands" us.
I choose today, however, to embrace, "For our momentary light distress [this passing trouble] is producing for us an eternal weight of glory [a fullness] beyond all measure [surpassing all comparisons, a transcendent splendor and an endless blessedness]! So we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen; for the things which are visible are temporal [just brief and fleeting], but the things which are invisible are everlasting and imperishable." All that is left for me to say and do when I consider this is, "Return to your comforting resting place, my soul, because the Lord [Jesus] has been good to you."
Father, in Jesus' Name, because of You I can confidently say, "Return to your rest, my soul...." Amen.
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* Please pray with us concerning our October/November Mission, October 28-November 15.
* Read about where is Germany headed: jhs58.blogspot.com
There are some different opinions as to who wrote this Psalm. But I can tell you that Jews have been reciting it for centuries---- to this very day. And when you consider the history of the Jews.............. Maybe here would be a good place to "Count your many blessings, name them one by one."
And what about you and me today? Can we not command our soul to, as did the psalmist, the Jews through the centuries, the Followers of Jesus persecuted from the beginning, "Return to your rest.., because...."? We can put it this way, "Because the Lord has been good to you, my soul," you can, "Return to your comforting resting place...." Of course that, "place," is and always has been, as the hymn writer said, "near to the Heart of God." Remember how we "went" to "the Heart of God," when we surrendered our lives to Jesus? Do you remember? Yet I pray that it is more than a "memory." I pray it is a current, joyous reality. It is the goodness of our Lord Jesus which is the basis, the empowerment for our, "comforting resting place," not circumstances, not my perception of life.
Restlessness and an absence of peace come when we interpret life's events negatively, when we are more quick to say, "God doesn't answer my prayers," or, "Why does this happen to me?" Romans 5 says, "....Let us exult in our sufferings and rejoice in our hardships, knowing that hardship (distress, pressure, trouble) produces patient endurance; and endurance, proven character..; and proven character, hope and confident assurance...." Now if we do not want, "patient endurance," and prefer just giving up, if we reject, "proven character," for some flippant religious experience, or if we prefer despair and doubt over, "hope and confident assurance," then just keep complaining about what life "hands" us.
I choose today, however, to embrace, "For our momentary light distress [this passing trouble] is producing for us an eternal weight of glory [a fullness] beyond all measure [surpassing all comparisons, a transcendent splendor and an endless blessedness]! So we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen; for the things which are visible are temporal [just brief and fleeting], but the things which are invisible are everlasting and imperishable." All that is left for me to say and do when I consider this is, "Return to your comforting resting place, my soul, because the Lord [Jesus] has been good to you."
Father, in Jesus' Name, because of You I can confidently say, "Return to your rest, my soul...." Amen.
******************
* Please pray with us concerning our October/November Mission, October 28-November 15.
* Read about where is Germany headed: jhs58.blogspot.com
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
