How's Your Pace?
For you to rest - that is, to live in total acceptance of God's way - demands quiet. . .
To rest in God permanently means to hand over each activity, each situation of your life, to Him and to learn the habit of trusting Him to work for you.
We don't naturally rest. Naturally we are stewers, tinkerers, and fussers. . .
Have you too much to do? Are you pushed, rushed, harried?
Said George Fox long ago, "Come out of the bustlings you that are bustling."
To guard your inner life, you must guard your outer life. How's your pace? Are you too busy? . . .
Does your pace allow you to keep in touch with yourself - with your inner needs and feelings and longings? Does it allow you time to think, plan, make changes? Does it allow you time to observe carefully the dear ones around you and care for their needs - physical and emotional? Do you have time to really live? . . .
Asian theologian Kosuke Koyama says that in human affairs God moves at something like three miles an hour, the pace at which a person walks, not runs! Are you synchronized to your world, maybe even to your Christian world, but out of sync with God? . . .
You will change when your inner life changes. But I just said your inner life is affected by our outer life! Then is the whole thing a vicious circle that can't be stopped?
No, the change begins with a decision. Your heart is your headquarters. Even as you read this, make the decision, by a conscious act of your will, that you will learn to rest in God both in your inner life and your outer life. Once the decision is made - and you implement it as God opens your eyes to ways to implement it - gradually, gradually over the weeks or years, the changes will come. Your heart will start listening to a different pulse deep within you, and with joy you'll begin to match your steps to that lovely, restful beat.
-From Disciplines of the Heart by Anne Ortlund; part of The Inspirational Study Bible: New Century Version by Max Lucado
To rest in God permanently means to hand over each activity, each situation of your life, to Him and to learn the habit of trusting Him to work for you.
We don't naturally rest. Naturally we are stewers, tinkerers, and fussers. . .
Have you too much to do? Are you pushed, rushed, harried?
Said George Fox long ago, "Come out of the bustlings you that are bustling."
To guard your inner life, you must guard your outer life. How's your pace? Are you too busy? . . .
Does your pace allow you to keep in touch with yourself - with your inner needs and feelings and longings? Does it allow you time to think, plan, make changes? Does it allow you time to observe carefully the dear ones around you and care for their needs - physical and emotional? Do you have time to really live? . . .
Asian theologian Kosuke Koyama says that in human affairs God moves at something like three miles an hour, the pace at which a person walks, not runs! Are you synchronized to your world, maybe even to your Christian world, but out of sync with God? . . .
You will change when your inner life changes. But I just said your inner life is affected by our outer life! Then is the whole thing a vicious circle that can't be stopped?
No, the change begins with a decision. Your heart is your headquarters. Even as you read this, make the decision, by a conscious act of your will, that you will learn to rest in God both in your inner life and your outer life. Once the decision is made - and you implement it as God opens your eyes to ways to implement it - gradually, gradually over the weeks or years, the changes will come. Your heart will start listening to a different pulse deep within you, and with joy you'll begin to match your steps to that lovely, restful beat.
-From Disciplines of the Heart by Anne Ortlund; part of The Inspirational Study Bible: New Century Version by Max Lucado
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