Rest

"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

My salvation and my honor depend on God;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart to him,
for God is our refuge."    Psalm 62:5-8

Where does my soul look for rest and comfort?  Where do I expect my hope to come from?  On what does my honor depend?  What do I trust in?  To whom do I pour out my heart, my deepest fears and hopes and dreams? 

If I'm honest I have to admit that my natural inclination is not to fall before God and pour out my heart when I need hope and rest.  I tend to pick up the phone or go to a friend's house.  Don't get me wrong, God has given me amazing friends (and especially sisters) to call and go to for encouragement and perspective.  But I cannot go to them instead of or before I go to the source of all real rest and comfort and peace and security.  And good friends, in the end, go there with me when I go to them!

The New Living Translation calls a refuge "a rock where no enemy can reach me".  No enemy of bad news or discouragement or failure or sickness can reach me there.  That doesn't mean I won't experience those things in my lifetime, but it does mean that they will not take me down and do not have the power to take my rest and hope.

"We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.  We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.  We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God.  We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed." 
2 Corinthians 4:8-9

Pressed on every side, perplexed, hunted down, knocked down! 
But never crushed, driven to despair, abandoned by God or destroyed! 

May you have rest and hope through whatever you face today!