To begin again

Like a newly walking baby, so goes our walk in Christ.
Sometimes we run to Our Father; sometimes we fall
and wait for Him to pick us up.

I won't lie folks, it's been a rough couple of weeks.  Last time I wrote I was frustrated with my plans changing, and I had great plans ya'll; they were the stuff of legend.  But they changed, they're still changing; I have to let God pick me up, and I fell hard.  I won't go into details, but think weeping in the bathroom intermittently coughing so hard I gagged, snot going everywhere, hard.  But sometimes, sometimes that's where Our Father has to lets us be so that we know our great need for Him.  Sometimes we have to look up and see our own pride in pushing forward, trying to get it all done, the boxes checked, in order that we can repent and let Him lift us from the miry clay.

In Exodus 33, God promises His people that He will go with them and He will give them rest.  Rest...  Rest beloved.  In the NASB, the word 'rest' is found 292 times, according to blueletterbible.org.  Think about that for a moment.  We, as a society, are so busy doing our works, some are even very good works, that we lose sight of the fact that resting was so important to God, that the word can be found 292 times.  Heck, it's even one of the Ten Commandments.  Why do we lose sight of that?

I am also convinced that it's not just physical rest God wants us to take, but spiritual.  Jesus said in Matthew 11:29, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."  Rest for our souls...  To be gentle and humble in heart...

Can you imagine how much less you would hurt another human being, one of God's creatures, one of your children, yourself, if we were gentle, humble in heart?  I cannot tell you how many times I have hurt one of my children's hearts' simply because I was in a hurry; I just wanted to get something done.  Or I didn't feel well, or I was tired, or..or..or... you get the idea.  To be gentle, to rest in Him.  To know that He will gives us peace beyond understanding (Philippians 4:7).  To begin again.  To stop pushing forward when everything is saying stop, when He is saying stop.  We have an enemy ya'll, an enemy that will keep us so worked up we can't hear the soft still voice of Our Father.  An enemy that doesn't want you to hear the soft, still voice of the Father.  Our enemy knows that if he can separate us from God's voice, if he can make us feel alone, we will give in to the temptation to despair.  Now mind, I'm not talking about sadness, or even depression, but despair.  Despair says there's no hope, no point, and you actually start to believe it.  

Join me in resting in Him.  Join me in learning to be gentle and humble in heart; pride tells you you're not doing enough, humility says it doesn't matter.  Join me to begin again, to let Your Father pick you up.  When I was younger I thought I made God unhappy when He had to pick me up, again (and again).  But now I know He is smiling.  He's so happy to have me home, to have you home; He is the Good Shepherd gone after the 1 lost sheep.  Oh what a celebration there is in Heaven when the lost sheep comes home.