I had already planned on heading to my fave Capital Region lake about 35 minutes north of here in the Adirondack foothills. And this daily reading confirmed it!
This Scripture isn't just talking about a quiet place to sleep. If your mind is full of anxiety, anger, confusion, depression, etc you will end up tossing and turning. I believe, since Jesus had been so busy ministering to others, that He was not only physically tired but also mentally and emotionally. After all, He experienced the same emotions we do according to the Scriptures when He was on earth in human form. And....He was inviting the disciples to join Him.
For me, this morning, my mind was full of several thoughts. I wasn't anxious but I was contemplating something...a relationship (friendship) that had gone sour and although the person is in recovery from an addiction, and doesn't answer texts or cards we have sent, she is often on my mind. I used to feel guilty for the way I responded once to one of her emails. I no longer feel guilty because after confessing my anger to the Lord over her email and my not so nice reply, I know His mercy and grace has offered me a second chance. The problem? When I reach out, the person doesn't respond. This was still on my mind and I knew I needed to bring it before God and lay it at His feet.
So that is just what I did. I went to the beach at the above mentioned lake because I knew that it would be relatively empty on a week day this time of year. School is still in session here in NYS so any families there would be mainly moms or grandmothers with toddler aged children.
Sure enough, the beach was mostly empty.
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As I sat quietly eating my lunch, I talked to God. I lay the person down and said "Lord, if you want the relationship to be restored, I am open to it". All I sensed, was "you've done enough, stop pursuing this".
Wow. Immediately I felt some peace.
I then lifted up another situation with an extended family member. I am not going to go into the details about it, but later, after I was home, I was checking email, and there was a lovely email from this very person and it definitely contained an answer to my prayer.
I don't know why God wanted me to take today and just go be by myself at the lake. I could have invited one of my other friends from church who are also retired...but I distinctly heard to "Go away by your self to a quiet place and find rest". God definitely met me there today.
And the time with the Lord today reminded me of another Scripture I had read this morning, from Psalms.
"hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications! In Your faithfulness answer me, and in Your righteousness. Do not enter into judgement with Your servant, for in Your sight no one living is righteous." ~Psalm 143:1-2~
David needed to humbly depend on God and be aware of his shortcomings.
I also needed this.
I'm depending on God to take care of the situation with ____. If the friendship is restored, great! If it's not meant to be, we will move on, knowing God has something different planned.
My mind is now at rest.
My body is relaxed.
The quietness was purposeful.
For this I am grateful.
3 comments:
Hi Faith. Beautiful post. So glad you got to have some restful, relaxing time to ponder and hear from God. I think we all need to make more time to pray and listen to what God has to say to us. Thanks for this lovely post.
How lovely to be able to take that day for yourself and come to terms with the situations you were struggling with. Sometimes are lives are so busy and full of noise that we can't hear the important things.
Sometimes we just need to get out of our normal environment and somewhere quiet without all the distractions that are at home. I'm so glad you were able to lay it at God's feet and find peace in those situations.
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