Jesus, I am Resting

Jesus, I am resting, resting

In the joy of what Thou art;

I am finding out the greatness

Of Thy loving heart;

Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee,

And Thy beauty fills my soul,

For by Thy transforming power,

Thou hast made me whole.

 

O, how great Thy loving kindness,

Vaster, broader than the sea!

O, how marvelous Thy goodness,

Lavished all on me!

Yes, I rest in Thee, Beloved,

Know what wealth of grace is Thine,

Know Thy certainty of promise,

And have made it mine.

 

Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,

I behold Thee as Thou art,

And Thy love, so pure, so changeless,

Satisfies my heart;

Satisfies its deepest longings,

Meets, supplies its ev'ry need,

Compasseth me round with blessings:

Thine is love indeed!


 

Ever lift Thy face upon me,

As I work and wait for Thee;

Resting 'neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus,

Earth's dark shadows flee.

Brightness of my Father's glory,

Sunshine of my Father's face,

Keep me ever trusting, resting,

Fill me with Thy grace.

 

Jesus, I am resting, resting,

In the joy of what Thou art,

I am finding out the greatness

Of Thy loving heart.

Psalm 92:12-15

The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing. To declare that the LORD is upright;

He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. (NKJ)

Proverbs 18:4

One of My Favorites...

Complete in Thee, no work of mine

May take, dear Lord, the place of Thine.

Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,

And I am now complete in Thee.

Complete in Thee, each want supplied.

And no good thing to me denied,

Since Thou my portion,

Lord, will be,

I ask no more: complete in Thee.

Complete in Thee, no more shall sin,

Thy grace hath conquered, reign within.

Thy voice shall bid the tempter flee,

And I shall stand complete in Thee.

Dear Savior when before Thy bar,

All tribes and tongues assembled are,

Among the chosen will I be,

At Thy right hand, complete in Thee.

Yea justified,

O blessed thought,

And sanctified, salvation wrought;

Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,

And glorified I, too, shall be.

The Goodness of God

I love the way God works. Yes, sometimes life is painful. Sometimes it seems slow. Sometimes the exact opposite of what we wanted to happen happens. But we have a promise: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28, ESV). We know that in the end, everything will be fine—but we have to keep that in the perspective of the very next verse: “For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.” What is the most good for us is to be more like Christ, and because at the end we meet God and know Him better…what can’t be good about that?!


I think the next verse is amazing. “And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.” Why would God desire to bring me to heaven and glorify me? Not because of anything I have done, but because He set His love on me! “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” There is nothing to doubt. God is love, God loves me, and He knows every second of my past, present, and future.


“He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” How faithless we are when we complain and grumble, become discontent, and compare ourselves with others. God gives good, amazing gifts!


As long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to go to the ocean. When God sent me to school in South Carolina, I was hopeful that would lead to an ocean trip. I was there a year. Then we took my brother to school in Florida and went to the Gulf of Mexico—very cool…but since it wasn’t true ocean, it just whetted my appetite for the real thing. :) Another two years away at school, and I graduated. What I wanted more than anything else by way of a graduation gift was to see the ocean, so graduation weekend my family and I trekked down to Charleston, South Carolina. Beautiful, beautiful.

And then I went to California on a dream-come-true missions trip—and we went to the ocean: once near LA, once in San Diego. So many years of dreaming to see the ocean…and I put my feet in the Atlantic one week, and a few short weeks later I put my feet in the Pacific!

I think God orchestrated that. :) “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). He has a loving heart and is incredibly gracious. I have other dreams in my heart now, and I don’t know what God will do with those—but I do know He is good, and that “those who seek the LORD lack no good thing” (Psalm 34:10).

A Lesson from Jonah

I have a good job; God has blessed me a lot over the past 5 years. But I knew from Day One that I didn’t want to be in food service for the rest of my life! :) Toward the end of the California trip, I was beginning to wish I didn’t have to go home and work in my secular food service job for the rest of the summer. I was loving all the ministry opportunities I was involved in! But God was getting ready to show me the nature of my heart…

We arrived at Camp Ironwood with only a week and a half left to go of the trip. The few days we were there was the last week before the camp season began; the counselors and staff were in full gear preparing for the campers’ arrival. The camp director, in lieu of the camper’s chapel time, held a service for the counselors and invited us to attend.


Mr. Brock told the story of Jonah—the man of God who tried to flee from God but found out it wouldn’t work! I wrote in my journal, “The theme was God is prepared. He knows what will happen when we sidestep His will and when we’re right in the middle of it. I needed to be reminded of Jonah’s story…I’m having the time of life in the middle of “full-time” ministry work…and going back to [my job] is really not appealing.” I wasn’t about to run away physically…I would get on that plane to go back home and I would put on my work uniform when my first day back rolled around…but in my heart, in my attitude, that’s what I was doing. I was running even when I knew perfectly well what God wanted me to do. Praise God He didn’t let Jonah’s plans succeed, and praise God He hasn’t let me remain in my bad attitude. He rebuked me, and continues to rebuke me whenever I’m tempted to wish for something else.


I finished my entry about the message: “But God has the perfect path for me; these 5 weeks it’s been ministry in California. For the rest of the summer and the next year, it’s working full-time and getting involved at [my church]. Lord willing in a year, it will be grad school and helping out at [a former teacher’s recent church plant]! But each stage is specifically sent by God with purpose. God is prepared.”

"I will cry out to God Most High,

To God who performs all things for me.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;

Let Your glory be above all the earth.

I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples;

will sing to You among the nations."

~Psalm 57

The Life I Live

“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;

and He died for all, that

those who live should live no longer

for themselves, but for Him

who died for them and rose again.”

II Corinthians 5:14-15, NKJ

~We did a lot of shopping in California…San Francisco’s China Town and Fisherman’s Wharf. San Diego’s Old Town and bay shops. LA’s downtown market.


We were told to try to pack for the trip in a couple carry-ons, both to cut costs on the flights and to make sure we could fit everyone’s bags into the vehicles we drove. In order to help for the flight out to California, our leaders told us that it would be cold in SF, but we’d go shopping and could buy nice jackets inexpensively once we got there. We flew into SF on a Thursday, and due to various reasons, we didn’t do the promised shopping until Tuesday! We froze the whole weekend, and believe me, as soon as I bought my hoodie, I put it on and it did not leave me for a good long while!

~I belong to Someone! I am redeemed—bought—by Christ’s precious blood. And because I am bought, I am not my own. And because I am not my own, my time is not my own. My energy is not my own. My money is not my own. My life is not my own. “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:4)


My desire, rather than to love myself, will be to love God and love others. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:22-24)


I am not here to serve myself, or to use my time, energy or money selfishly on myself. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

I, surprisingly, got a lot of use out of my hoodie in California. San Francisco’s cold seemed to follow us for awhile! God doesn’t need me like that, but He does ask that once I become His, I submit myself to His service. As Milton Vincent says in The Gospel Primer, “Compared to greater endeavors, self-love is mundane and tiresome. Consequently, the more thoroughly I can be done with such tedium, the freer my soul will be to soar at its God-intended heights.” Let’s be done with lesser things!