Relinquishing Worries By Resting In Christ

     Lately, I have been pondering our current state of affairs.  No, not with regards to the nation, but of our home.  With all the "new" happening in our lives, I cannot help but muse upon them!
     "Look ahead, not back."  "And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."--Luke 9:62  What would I miss, if I looked behind me?
     For some time, since the transition God has me undergoing, I have been guilty of "looking back."  Granted, I am not considering abandoning faith in my only Hope:  Jesus Christ.  However, I am guilty of looking back to a place from where God has removed me.
     Instead of wisely using the time and abilities God has given me in proper preparations for our new direction, I am still trying to cope with the change.  Granted, it is quite the change:  anyone who knows me, personally, would understand.  I do realize that there will be some adjustment time needed, yet I need to focus on gearing up for what lies ahead of us!
     Oh, so easy to say, yet harder to do!  Who wants to leave their comfort zone?  Who wants to start over, after being in a routine for years?  Who wants to leave behind a people who have been a family to them for years?  Sure, I know that there are people who do not like to settle, yet, I am not one of those people.  Give me a home, let me make it, and let me thrive in it.  :)  Please, oh please, just do not make me leave it.
     Yet, many times God has done just that to me:  made me leave where I was comfortable; even if it was not a good place.  There have been times I have left a good place, but needed to go to the right place.  So, nothing new to me, but it does not mean it is easy.  I try to remember that starting afresh is a blessing.
     All through this time of big changes in my life, I keep recalling what this ol' Gospel hymn says:  "This world is not my home, I'm just a'passin' thru.  My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue.  The angels beckon me, to Heaven's golden shore; and I can't feel at home in this world anymore."  Indeed, this world is not my home.
     With that realization in mind, I seek to comfort myself with the words Jesus left behind for me:

John 14:1-4

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know."

Matthew 6:24-34
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

     Oh, if I but always rested in Christ's promises!  If I only always walked confidently in His integrity towards me, rather than doubtful disputations in my mind!  He deserves better than my doubts and fears.

     It is easy to yield myself to the insecurities within me.  Rather than faithfully cast every thought and care to Christ's faithful, able care, I try to handle it all on my own.  Rather than trust His leadership of my life, I recoil at the unknown.

     I do not know what all lies ahead for me.  I do not know what will become of us in our new home.  I do not know where God will have us best serve Him.  I do not know anything, rather than what each day brings.

     Yet, is that not what my Lord desires of me?  Trust Him for the future, and do today what He wills?  Does He not want me to faithfully implement the skills given unto me, as each day progresses, simply doing what I already know to do?  Does He not want me to utilize the wisdom, to prepare as best as He desires me to prepare, for the unknown...But, not seek to control it?  Does He not want me to rest in Him, not fear?  "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. "--1 Peter 5:7

The answer to my questions is "YES!"

     So, as I look ahead, I must look to Christ.  I must not look to the arm of the flesh, but to the arm of the Lord:  "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help."--Psalm 146:3  "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.  It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones."--Proverbs 3:5-8

     I know that the Lord has the best in mind for me.  Though I may not be able to say so in regards to another, for sure I can say it about Him.  I know that He has sanctified me in Himself:  "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."--Hebrews 10:14  I know I matter to Him!

     With that knowledge of His love for me in mind, I remind myself of His very special prayer.  I remember that He is currently my mediator, and is interceding for me.  Wow!  What a thought!  May I rest in Him.  

John 17

"These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them."

**His prayer for me...makes me cry even now...Knowing that He tenderly loves me...And cares for my well-being...Oh, how foolish I am, to worry over things He never intended for me to worry over...But rather, hand it all over to Him, and REST in Him.**