Boredom. The Bible says that "idle hands are the devil's workshop." I understand that passage more than ever over the last year. I am currently unemployed and looking for a job. As someone who is a bit more Type A than not, not having a job is parallel with going out of my mind! I am forcing myself daily to keep my mind occupied with things that are "noble and praiseworthy" as the Word suggests. I have read every book in my library (again): all uplifting, encouraging and edifying to my Spirit. I am in the Word, more than I am out of it. I am praying and fasting. And of course, I am looking for work. Sounds busy, right? But here is the thing; and please try to understand this in the right way, I am Restless. I am doing everything in my power to use this time wisely, but other than reading, I have nothing to do. I need to use my hands! I need to use my mind.
Does it ever seem to any of you, that God has you right where He wants you? While I have Peace in the midst of this, I also have a sense of underlying restlessness. I think I have always had an underlying restlessness about me. There is something in me that tells me I have to strive for whatever, for everything. I have the overwhelming sense that God is trying to remove the root of this striving from me, and replace it with "Being". I need to learn to relax and just BE in His presence. Constant motion is a distraction that keeps me from allowing God to speak to me and bless me. To affirm me and to carress those hurts and bind up the wounds. To share with me His secrets, His plans and His heart. I am in desperate need of these things, as I am sure most of us are. There is too much noise around us that is vying for our attention and in the midst of it all is the "still small voice" of our Lord. Beckoning to us, to come away to a quiet place and sit with Him. We have become addicted to the noise and the silence is something we have come to avoid at all costs. The reality is, that only in the silence are we really refreshed and quieted. There, there is no need to strive for anything. I have the feeling that God has me right where He wants me...
To Strive means to labor, hard. It also means to contend with in opposition.
Is. 45:9 says, "Woe to him who strives with his Maker." It goes on to ask the question, "Can the clay say to the Potter, what do you think you are making?' or, Your work has no handles?" vs 11: "Thus says the Lord,...Would you question Me about the things to come concerning my children, and concerning the work of My hands, Would you command me?"
We need to be careful, in the midst of trials, not to question and complain. We need to trust that the Potter--the One who forms us and makes us in to the vessel of His choosing--is just and faithful to complete the work He has begun in us. We need to be mindful of the fact that we are no longer our own; we have been chosen and paid for by the blood of Christ. We need to remember that just like the Bread of Life (Jesus) that was broken and distributed for the sake of many, we too, must be broken so that we may be distributed for the sake of others.
Diamonds before they are unearthed don't shine. It is only when they are cut, and fashioned and polished are they brilliant. My light, too,will not shine until I am broken and put back together, restored and fitted for His service, through trials. Just like a piece of clay, I am now in a place where God is molding me for His service. I do not yet know what type of vessel I will become, but I do know that I will be beautiful and brilliant and I will shine! I need only to be still, like a lump of clay, and let the Potter have His way.
Phil 1:27 Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel...standing firm in united spirit and purpose, striving side by side, and contending with a single mind for the Faith. This is the only striving we are to do!
I invite you to spend some time each day with God. Each time a thought comes in that is not of Him, catch it and put it out of your mind. Bring a Scripture with you, and when a distraction comes, read and reread the passage. Ask God to speak and tell Him you are listening. I love the part of the story of Samuel, where Levi, the priest tells Samuel "Go back to your bed and when you hear the voice again, say " your servant is listening" . We need to be listening more than speaking to God!
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