Unsettled and thriving
How can you really flourish when your life is constantly being turned upside down?
How can you actually grow and feel established when the carpet is continuously being ripped out from underneath your feet?
How can you truly thrive when life is ANYTHING but settled?
These are questions I've taken to God time and again the past 4 1/2 years. They have been years marked my waves of trials. Health issues, months of unemployment, loss of friendship, grueling work conditions, difficulties in parenting, and major transitions within our place of ministry - to name a few. I've often wished for just one area of my life to just settle down and not have the sense of turmoil.
Could I have 1 pocket of my life that was free from chaos? One place I could find solace?
A friend and I were recently talking through the struggles and the sense of feeling unsettled and she responded with:
"You know me. You're the same way. We thrive when things are settled."
How true that statement feels.
For things to be decent and in order. Isn't that what God is? Not a God of confusion.
For things to be at peace and resolved. Isn't He the God of peace?
But what if I'm looking to myself to feel settled, rather than to Him?
What if the very things that make me feel so unsettled, so out of sorts, so very desperate and uncertain - what if those are the very things He's ordaining that I might settle into Him?
As I look back over the past 4 1/2 years of my life and I weep still at the hardness of it all, I can clearly see that God has graciously been stripping me of my own strength. He's been turning my own well-laid plans upside down and growing me to trust that His thoughts are higher and HIs ways are better.
When God unsettles us, it is to give us the gift of Himself!
He is the ONE turning our lives upside down. He is the ONE breaking us. Stripping us bare. He is the ONE behind our world falling apart. And it's all a gracious and good gift of His mercy that He might be the ONE we fall on, the ONE we settle into, the ONE who hold us together.
We thrive, not on perfect schedules and routines.
We thrive, not in perfectly laid plans and agendas.
We thrive, not when things are finally comfortable and easy.
We truly thrive when we abide in Him.
Apart from Him we can do nothing.
To pursue being settled and thriving apart from Him is truly like chasing after wind.
It leaves us exhausted and frantic. It keeps us stressed and overwhelmed.
But to let go of our white-knuckled grip of control of our lives and to say to the ONE who is over all: "Have your Way with me", that is when we truly begin to thrive. TO FULLY LIVE!!!
We can always pursue abiding in Him. And so, we can ALWAYS, NO MATTER WHAT, truly thrive.
God is good to lovingly empty us of ALL that we cling to and seek our settled in, so that HE may be our ALL.
He is "The Rock, his work is perfect, for ALL His ways are right. A God of truth and without mistake, just and right is He." - Deuteronomy 32:4
We don't need everything perfectly ordered in our lives in order to thrive.
We don't need every hard circumstance and trial to end in order to thrive.
We don't need ANYTHING BUT JESUS!
And those very circumstances that leave us feeling so unsettled?
Those are His good gifts to drive us to Him.
Because HE knows that truly thriving only happens when we're SETTLED INTO HIM!
How can you actually grow and feel established when the carpet is continuously being ripped out from underneath your feet?
How can you truly thrive when life is ANYTHING but settled?
These are questions I've taken to God time and again the past 4 1/2 years. They have been years marked my waves of trials. Health issues, months of unemployment, loss of friendship, grueling work conditions, difficulties in parenting, and major transitions within our place of ministry - to name a few. I've often wished for just one area of my life to just settle down and not have the sense of turmoil.
Could I have 1 pocket of my life that was free from chaos? One place I could find solace?
A friend and I were recently talking through the struggles and the sense of feeling unsettled and she responded with:
"You know me. You're the same way. We thrive when things are settled."
How true that statement feels.
For things to be decent and in order. Isn't that what God is? Not a God of confusion.
For things to be at peace and resolved. Isn't He the God of peace?
But what if I'm looking to myself to feel settled, rather than to Him?
What if the very things that make me feel so unsettled, so out of sorts, so very desperate and uncertain - what if those are the very things He's ordaining that I might settle into Him?
As I look back over the past 4 1/2 years of my life and I weep still at the hardness of it all, I can clearly see that God has graciously been stripping me of my own strength. He's been turning my own well-laid plans upside down and growing me to trust that His thoughts are higher and HIs ways are better.
When God unsettles us, it is to give us the gift of Himself!
He is the ONE turning our lives upside down. He is the ONE breaking us. Stripping us bare. He is the ONE behind our world falling apart. And it's all a gracious and good gift of His mercy that He might be the ONE we fall on, the ONE we settle into, the ONE who hold us together.
We thrive, not on perfect schedules and routines.
We thrive, not in perfectly laid plans and agendas.
We thrive, not when things are finally comfortable and easy.
We truly thrive when we abide in Him.
Apart from Him we can do nothing.
To pursue being settled and thriving apart from Him is truly like chasing after wind.
It leaves us exhausted and frantic. It keeps us stressed and overwhelmed.
But to let go of our white-knuckled grip of control of our lives and to say to the ONE who is over all: "Have your Way with me", that is when we truly begin to thrive. TO FULLY LIVE!!!
We can always pursue abiding in Him. And so, we can ALWAYS, NO MATTER WHAT, truly thrive.
God is good to lovingly empty us of ALL that we cling to and seek our settled in, so that HE may be our ALL.
He is "The Rock, his work is perfect, for ALL His ways are right. A God of truth and without mistake, just and right is He." - Deuteronomy 32:4
We don't need everything perfectly ordered in our lives in order to thrive.
We don't need every hard circumstance and trial to end in order to thrive.
We don't need ANYTHING BUT JESUS!
And those very circumstances that leave us feeling so unsettled?
Those are His good gifts to drive us to Him.
Because HE knows that truly thriving only happens when we're SETTLED INTO HIM!
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