refreshed

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its towns when I restore their fortunes: “The LORD bless you, O abode of righteousness, O holy hill!” And Judah and all its towns shall live there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks. I will satisfy the weary, and all who are faint I will replenish. Thereupon I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me. (Isaiah 31:23-26, NRSV)

Have you ever woken up feeling completely refreshed?

The sleep you just had was complete and rested your body wholy?

You actually woke up without an alarm and did not need to run and grab a cup of coffee. (OK no morning is actually complete without a cup of coffee, but you know what I am saying!)

Here we hear about Israel’s refreshing sleep. We hear how the Lord blesses his habitation and him.

We see in this the refreshment we can have in the Lord if we but trust Him and rest in His control.

God has promised that He will give us rest and refresh us. All we need to do is trust Him!

rest

At that time, says the LORD, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus says the LORD: The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest, the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall take your tambourines, and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy the fruit. For there shall be a day when sentinels will call in the hill country of Ephraim: “Come, let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.” (Isaiah 31:1-6, NRSV)

Do you feel like you have to be doing something in order that the kingdom of God will come?

We feel like in order to be serving God we have to go go go and never stop or rest.

But did you see it in the reading, when Israel sought rest…

Israel the man sought rest, or Israel the country sought rest, and The Lord appeared, and gave him rest!

God loves us with an everlasting love, and so will always be looking out for our best. Sometimes that means He will give us rest, and if we don’t take it, it will be given in a way we won’t refuse, or maybe can’t refuse.

Working in God’s kingdom could be like being physically fit. If you are constantly moving and working out, you will not build muscle or endurance, you will actually wear yourself out and make yourself sick. Youhave to rest and allow your body to heal, so it can grow and develop. That is what God does for us by giving us rest, He allows us to heal and develop into who He created us to be.

Plus God rested after He created everything, so If He rested, why do we think we have to go go go? Just rest in Him!

wings of eagles

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31, NRSV)

Have you ever run and not gotten weary?

I remember a recent 10k I ran. I say that like I run all the time. I actually tell people I don’t run, and if you see me running, you should probably be running too…

But I was running the race with my daughter, and we would run for a streach and then when one or both of us got weary or tired, we would walk. Now we still walked at a pace that kept our time at about a 4.2/4.3 mph pace…

But we got weary!

But in Jesus we have no need to fear of wearing out, or fainting. For when we trust in God He will mount us up like the wings of an eagle and upon His mighty strength we will soar!

So trust not in yourself or others, but trust in God and He will lift you up and make you to soar!

Change…

changeAt that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:25-30, NRSV)

Things hidden from us tend to make us question what we want…

What do you want?

If you are honest with yourself you will probably say:

I want to:
Grow
Evolve
Improve
Mature
Become better than I am right now

Yet if you are really honest with yourself you should probably also say:

I want to:
Be left alone
Not pushed
Untouched
Unchanged
Exactly the same as I am now.

We want to be different but we don’t want to change. Change brings upon death because we lose something we have held dearly for a long time. We want to grow but we don’t want to change…

Change brings the unknown.

Change implies risk.

Change is uncertain.

One can not be a part of the body of Christ though and stay unchanged. The one thing we are assured of is Christ accepts us as we are, but loves us too much to leave us that way! He will mold us and change us.

So be not afraid of the change that Christ will bring you.

Come to Christ as you are and walk away with Him a better changed person!

dwelling in your goodness

Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds— his name is the LORD— be exultant before him. Father of orphans and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God gives the desolate a home to live in; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious live in a parched land. O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain at the presence of God, the God of Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Rain in abundance, O God, you showered abroad; you restored your heritage when it languished; your flock found a dwelling in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy. (psalm 68:4-10, NRSV)

God provides for the needy!

Have you ever wondered how God provides for the needy?

Have you ever given to a charity that helps build houses for people, or gives them jobs, or helps them with education?

Have you ever volunteered your time to work at a clothings store, like Goodwill or similar, or animal shelter, or food pantry?

Have you ever helped someone in need, either by your own works or through support of another entity?

God meets the needs of those in need through us! He uses us as His hands and feet to do His will in this place.

You makea difference by being you and doing the things you do every day! You are a pebble that causes waves in the lake, that show God’s love all around you!

So dwell in the goodness of God all around you and keep causing waves of Love to crash down the barriers that seperate us!

sacrifice of praise

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13:1-3;15-16, NRSV)

You could entertain angels…

We should consider all people as we are those people, because God created all of us, so it could easily be us in prison or being tortured…

We offer our sacrifice of praise not by giving a huge sacrifice.

Not by giving up all our posessions and giving everything away to the poor.

Not by making ourselves small…

We give our sacrifice of praise when we do the thigns we do every day for all of God’s peope because that is what God would want us to do. We do it, not because we will get something, but because God gave to us and so we are giving what is not ours inthe first place but is God’s…

So give you sacrifice of praise and love all of God’s people, the way He first loved you!

provide

But after a while the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land. Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” But she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth.” She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah. (1 Kings 17:7-16, NRSV)

Have you ever been where this widow was?

She was gathering sticks for the fire to make her final meal…

She was ready to give up because it looked hopeless. The river was dry and it looked like the time to just cook the last meal and give up the fight.

She was ready for the end.

But what we have in mind isn’t usually what God has in mind. God’s ways are not our ways, and His thougths are not our thoughts…

So the prophet comes and says, “the meal and oil will nto run out.” God will provide!

This is a proven statement to me time and time again. As I look back over my life, O wonder at how we made it through some of the things we faced. But the answer always is God provided!

He always will. It may not be what you imaged, but He will provide, just have faith!