find rest, my soul

I've been spending so much of my me time reading other peoples blogs that I have not been taking time to write in my own. One thing I've been noticing of late is that on a whole lot of blogs I've been reading there have been questions and comments and thoughts relating to GRACE. About four times today I wanted to comment on someone's blog and say "I just read something about that in this amazing book I'm reading!" I just want to shout it out to the world that "Grace: the Power to Change" by James B Richards is the most amazing book!! Nearly every book, on the back credits, says "it's a must read"...but this one I actually agree with. I whole heartedly recommend it to everyone. There...that's done now.

Another thing I'm learning is that I don't rest very well. I am easily bored. Not that I don't physically rest well, I can be a couch potato along with the best of them, I can lay for hours out in the sun, I can procrastinate my work exceptionally well (in fact, that's what I'm doing right now!) Also, I think I rest OK in the spiritual sense. I truly believe that Jesus yoke is easy and his burden light. I'm pretty quick to recognize that anything that feels heavy is not from Jesus and I might as well drop it. But I don't rest very well in my mind. I say that I think about things all the time, but I'm not a thinker like some thinkers that can't turn it off at night, that can't sleep for days thinking about random things that don't mean anything. I don't feel like I obsess about stuff. If it feels like something that I NEED to know in order to take the next step, or to be fully functional, or to properly explain my position on a certain subject, or to help someone else who is struggling with a not-so-light burden, then I think and I study and I talk and now lately, I write. My learning style seems to be that I learn best by talking things through. I talk until I'm painted into a corner, or can't explain something clearly enough and then I know it's time to do some more thinking.

Some of you who know me know that I've been on somewhat of a quest to learn about physical healing. What I've been learning is fascinating to me, in that the principals of healing are the exact same principals of all the other principals of salvation, righteousness, freedom, grace, deliverance, provision and everything else that Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. His work is a finished work, it accomplished everything He set out to do. It is past tense. It becomes present tense when I believe that it is past tense. There is NO aspect of my life that this finished work of Christ will not affect, if I believe. All of my posts thus far are coming from this angle of pursuit.

This subject puts up red flags in many people's minds...including mine. There are many, many people who just spout off things they've heard quoted, many "formula's for success", many "friends of Job" who do not speak accurately on behalf of God. There are also many genuine people who are just simply misunderstood because people don't take the time to get to know the heart and the depth of where their faith is, and who their faith is in. They want an easy answer to the enormous complexity that is faith, that is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.

Anyway, I can get into quite a knot about these things at times. I find that there are way toomanywhatifs, way toomanyquestions, way toomanyfears.

On such occasions a Psalm of David sings along in my mind. It goes like this. "My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me." He's saying to me "Just relax, don't sweat it...you've learned enough for now, take a break!" But my heart is proud. I want to know! I resist the rest... Like a child who fights sleep and is rocked firmly and gently, eventually into the bliss of slumber.... but I don't like it... "find rest, my soul, in God alone...."