Resting Quietly in God

Existence as a fallen creature in a fallen world has its way of pressing in upon us. We worry about this and fret about that. Many real dangers, actual hurts and immanent threats surround us. But we must rest in the sovereign hands of God.


Too often we look to other people and expect to find satisfaction, security and solace in their words. Many times we walk away from such exchanges having only stirred up more worries and doubts, and perhaps we've added a bit of strife for all our trouble. Occasionally, a person will lead us to the Lord and provide real benefit. Perhaps we weren't looking for God's input, so we depart from potentially helpful fellowship with a feeling of emptiness or defensiveness. Man's words cannot satisfy our hearts - only "that which proceeds from the mouth of God" can.

Sometimes I simply talk to God about my fears. When I cast my cares upon Him, looking not to the creature but to the Creator, I find a strange and almost unbelievable peace that "passes understanding." It's like a little piece (or "peace") of heaven has been deposited in my soul. All is hushed, and God alone is present. My worries get wrapped up in His overarching goodness. Such moments come in unexpected times and places, not usually in church or religious gatherings. In a quieter place, in a moment of silence, God speaks loudest.

This is not to say we don't need fellowship with other believers, but the things we learn in godly fellowship often lie dormant and unapplied until we get alone with God and hear Him reiterate what He said to us in a group setting. The saints play their essential role, but God alone causes the Word to bear fruit in us.

Are you resting in Him, or are you looking to creatures who are just as tied up in knots as you are? People who are just as sinful and broken, just as destructive, just as damaged, just as dangerous.

The things that people did to us were filtered through the loving hand of God, but we must not blame Him for what He allowed. He designed those disappointments for our benefit, and the benefit of those who cross our path. If we take our hurts to Him, His healing grace becomes the medicine we share with others. Such empathy is the vein of gold that runs though the raw ore of our sufferings.


In holding onto our hurt, we blame both God and man for what was done. We accuse them both and make them both our enemy. We fail to see that God has been working all our lives to redeem us from our own sin. We miss the ways He used the sins of others to draw us, that He might reconcile us to Himself and also to one another. In distrust of God, we cling to the ore and cheapen the gold. It's a shameful waste of perfectly good sufferings.

Only when we look to a sorrowful Savior in His passion, agonizing for ALL the sins of the world, can we get enough perspective to forgive others, trust God, and rest. Only when we see what our sin did to Him can we appreciate grace. Then we accept our troubles as gifts from God, and bring them trustingly back to Him. We find our transgressions forgiven and love inundating our hearts. In quiet moments of discourse with God we can find such wonders as these.