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Renew the Inside

I confused my wife, just recently.
She said to me, “You need some more “Brand 1″ shower gel.” To which I replied, “No I don’t, I need some “Brand 2″ shower gel.”
(No, we didn’t say “Brand 1” and “Brand 2”, but the shower gel brand that I use is a secret, of the Highest Magnitude! …???… 🙂 )

She just looked at me, with a confused expression and replied, but you’ve got “Brand 1″ shower gel?”

This is where I might confuse you too. 🙂

I did indeed have a “Brand 1” bottle, but it was filled with “Brand 2” shower gel.

I had wanted to try a different Brand of shower gel, and as such, I had bought “Brand 2” shower gel. But I didn’t like the “Brand 2” bottle.
The “Brand 1” bottle can be stored upside down, so it is easier to empty the bottle. But the “Brand 2” bottle will just fall over, if you tried to store it upside down.

So, my simple solution to this was to just rinse the old bottle out, once it was finished, and then refill it with the new shower gel.
So now I had the better old style bottle, with the new shower gel. Which ended up confusing my wife. 🙂 (and possibly anyone else who is reading this???)

As I was looking at the bottle, I kind of got I sense of, “You can do this, with the vessel, that is yourself, you can empty yourself of all the stuff that does you no good, and then be refilled with the good stuff. The good stuff that brings life, in abundance.”

How many negative thoughts do we carry around with us?
Thoughts along the lines of, you’re no good, who are you to do that, you can’t make a difference and many other wrong thoughts that can leave us thinking, “Who am I, to think that I could do ……. .”

Broadly speaking, I think that these kind of thoughts can be called, “lies from the enemy”, who wants to stop us from being the best version of ourselves that we should be. The version of ourselves that we were made to be.

Just like the shower bottle, we can actually try to empty out the old stuff, (lies of the enemy) and instead be filled with the good stuff (The Truth that God speaks about us).

Romans 12:2
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

God’s words to us, are words that speak life to us.
Words that say, “You are Loved, You matter, You are important.”

Sometimes, we might not like what Our God speaks to us, if they come in the form of a rebuke, but if God is trying to correct our wrong thinking, it will be for our Good, if we will follow His correction.

Revelation 3:19-20
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

God does indeed want to renew us in the here and now, but we do need to let Him in, to do it, as He waits for us to say, “Yes” to Him. As we say “Yes” to Our Lord God, He will then transform us into what we were meant to be all along. We will still be ourselves, but a better version of ourselves, that then can expect to be with Him, for all time.

As we say “Yes” to Our Lord God, we will then be able to resist the enemy that much better, and all the thoughts of condemnation that the enemy tries to bring. Instead we can walk into the truth, and light, that Our Lord God brings to us.

John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

So the choice remains before you.
Will you say “Yes” to Our Lord God?
Will you say “Yes” to the renewing of your mind, with the truth, that Our Lord God speaks to us?

If you do want to say “Yes” to Him, then just saying “Yes”, could be the starting point. If it helps, you could even echo the words below, in your heart, to Our Lord God.

I want to say “Yes” to You God.
I want to say “Yes” to the renewing of my mind, by You.
I want to continue to say “Yes” to You.
Please help me to do this.
I’m sorry for not saying “Yes” to You before now, but here and now, I’m opening the door to You and asking You to help me.
To know the better way that I can go.
Please help me to know Your truth and to follow Your path that leads to Life.
Amen.

If you have just said “Yes” to God for the first time, then I do encourage you to tell someone. If you do know someone who is a Christian, then tell that person.
If you don’t know who to tell, that you have said “Yes” to God, then you could put an “I’ve just said “Yes” to God” in the comments.

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Link to, Posts, with an Outreach feel.

How do you Pray, when you feel that you just can’t do anything?
A post with some advice about how to pray. (Talk to God)

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Try to Not Ponder on the Why?

This weeks post was written many months ago.
My posting it now, is in some ways, me saying “Yes” to my Lord God.
It’s me, trying to step into, that, which is available.

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Last week I wrote about clamps being used to help a gluing process.
Then I have had a week where it has felt as if a clamp may have been applied to me, for a short time.

Short version. My car was changed recently with a used approved car.
An issue came up, which I was then being told, “This isn’t covered by your warranty.” I was then getting all the reasoning together as to why it should be covered. (OK, I was kind of getting ready to go to war… of sorts.)
The car went in for an inspection…. and then they said that they would fix it, under the warranty…. that they were saying, didn’t cover the issue… ??? (A fuller story can be found on a new blog site Here.)

This is where I need to, not ponder on the why.

It could be all to easy to carry on the road to war, after preparing for it, even though it is now, no longer needed.
I am very happy that I don’t need to take that path, and very much so thankful that it has turned out that way.

But why did they say that it wasn’t covered by the warranty, to then just do the repair work under the warranty?
It cost me a week of worry, that I would need to make good, something that shouldn’t need to be made good, and certainly not by me.
This is a path that I need to steer clear of, and to endeavour to just be thankful instead.

It has left me thinking, can we sometimes continue on a course of action, just because of the momentum of what has gone on is carrying us that way?
Even after a change in direction is available, or has even been taken?
If a problem has been removed, or an escape route has been provided, then why do we still want to go back to the problem?

I know, sometimes we can learn lessons by going over it again.
But are there times, when all we are doing is pulling up and digging into a whole world of pain, when we don’t need to?

Prayerful consideration of which route to take will be your best guide in all situations. Providing that we can hear Our Heavenly Father’s words for, the path that we should take.

For me this week, I very quickly leaned into the, “I’ll try to not ponder “Why”, but just be thankful instead.”
It made me smile, when some possible answers to the “why”, then just landed in my lap. 🙂
Have you ever found that, sometimes, things can just go that way?

One of the things to come out of this experience is the starting of a new (and hopefully short running) blog site.
Isn’t one enough???

While the clamps were on, I had a vision (or thought) to do another site as part of my persuasion as to why the issue, should be dealt with under the warranty. That need no longer exists, but a slightly different vision remains, even though the clamps have been removed.

I do like what I write here on this site. But lets be honest, it’s more of a personal library which just happens to be open for others to read, which most people just pass by, at the present moment.
This is fine by me, in some respects. (Not a bad thing to not be on the centre of the stage. 🙂 ) But it would be good if others could be blessed by what is written here. If a door could be opened to The Lord Our God, for others to enter on into the party. The hint is in the name, Wannabe Christian Doorman.
I have written about this in a previous post of, Here be Gold (Possibly?)

In that post, I liken this site to being a grain of gold in the Sahara Desert. (Incidentally, that post did have a spelling mistake which led to an outreach post of, Sahara Desert or Sahara Dessert?)
In the “Here be Gold” post, I also ask if anyone has a spot light to shine onto the grain of gold?
The new site, could possibly be a small (or larger) light to shine onto the gold in this site. I’m talking about Our Lord God’s words, not mine. 🙂

Time will tell how this will work out, but the thought, kind of goes…
Something that the world could enjoy reading, pointing to something with the Goodness (or Gold) that Our Loving Lord God has for us.

Last thing to say here is, that it is up and running (and by now mostly finished), and can be found from the link below.

The link below takes you to a post with a bit more punch to it.
If you are new to a high powered car, then reading it could possibly help you to not have an accident, just like I did.

Happy Jaguar Experience???

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Is Blind Faith needed, to Believe in “The Big Bang Theory” ?

To be sure that you know my position on this one, I believe in creation theory. I believe that God created everything as it states in the Bible.

Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

I ask the question in this post, as a picture has come to my mind.
If you had a fully functioning car, drove it into an empty space, then dismantled it and left it alone…. would it ever just reassemble itself?
Everything that was needed for the car to just be, would be present in the space. It would just need to assemble itself… ????

OK, a is car is a complex thing.
Would the idea work on something simpler?
A bicycle?

If a bicycle was in pieces, and left alone in an empty space, would it ever just assemble itself???

Is that still too complicated?
Can we go even more simple?

A nut and bolt that fit each other?
If we were to put a matching nut and bolt, inside a space, and then just leave them.
Then will they ever, just join up together? …. No?

How about if we shake the space that they are in?
If we, without looking at what is going on, just shake the space, then will the two separate items come together in just the right way, to then become one item?

I do think, that if we are going to be sensible, that the answer to the above question, is a resounding “No”.

There is so much that is needed, just to bring a simple nut and bolt together.
There is a need to have a vision of what they could be. There is a need for eyes to see them, then direct them together in just the right way, so that they can be joined together.
Hands are needed, to do the moving and correct aligning of the nut to the bolt.
Even then, it is possible to get the alignment wrong, and then cross thread the nut onto the bolt. Which can then mean that the nut only starts to connect to the bolt, and then gets stuck on the very end of the bolt. A cross threaded nut and bolt is of very little use.

So if there is very little hope that a simple nut and bolt can just be brought together, then I think it is safe to say that there is no hope for the bicycle or the car to just, come together.

What I have just written above, probably sounds like complete nonsense. But doesn’t “The Big Bang Theory” require that, for those who believe in “The Big Bang Theory”, that the above scenarios just happened, on a molecular level, when the universe was just created out of nothing, by nothing?

That all the laws of physics, just came into being, in an ordered manner, so that eventually, further collisions could occur.
Which would then lead to, with all the correct building block ingredients in place, life on this planet, just coming into existence, without any external help.
Which then leads to so forth and so forth, until we reach mankind, and all that we can currently do in our modern world.
All with no help from an external creator???

I do believe that the evidence for a creator, is so much greater than the evidence for there not being a creator.

You might say, “It’s easy for you to say that, but where’s your evidence for what you believe?”

I do have a previous post, giving some thoughts on why I believe that I can have such confidence, for what I believe.
Please do also consider having a read of that post. A link is below.

Is God Real???

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A Life without Purpose???

A thought that I had just recently was, “What is a life without purpose?”

We all need purpose, in some way.
Whether we are aware of this or not? But I still think that it is true for all of us. Purpose is the reason we get up out of bed, even if that purpose is just to go to the toilet. 🙂

But do we actually know what our purpose is?
Our reason for just being here?
We may all try to find our purpose in different things, whether they be relationships, activities, possessions or anything else.

So the next natural question to ask, is… “Is it a good purpose that we are looking to?”

I’m not even going to try to answer that one here and now, but I’ll just suggest that you might want to seek out Our Lord God Almighty for His view on how good our purposes are.

The thing that is currently coming back to me though, is along the lines of, “How much do we seek to entertain, or more to the point, be entertained?”

We even have a very well known song, with the words, “So come on let me entertain you”, in it.

My thoughts are going to, “Is this what life boils down to?
To either be entertained or to do the entertaining?”

How much of our entertainment is just a filling of our time?
A distraction, from what really matters?

A bit of a cheeky bible verse keeps coming to me at the moment, and I’m just going to put it in. 🙂

Proverbs 31:6-7
6 Let beer be for those who are perishing,
    wine for those who are in anguish!
7 Let them drink and forget their poverty
    and remember their misery no more.

No, I’m not suggesting that we all go out and drink to excess, but if we put the word “entertainment” in place of the word “beer” and “wine”, then how many of us are actually doing this, without even realising it?

How many of us have just made “Entertainment” our purpose for being here?
To just be filled in the moment of now, without a care of what comes next?
To just be entertained in the here and now, so that we don’t even need to look at what is coming next?

Have we let the want to “entertain or be entertained”, take the highest honour?
Is there someone else who should be taking the Highest Honour?
Is there a better song that we can sing?
“Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart” … ???

Our Lord God has so much more for us than just a temporary distraction from the moment that we are in.

He wants to know us personally, for all time, and beyond.
He wants us to know Him, in the here and now, and beyond!

But do we want to know Him, as He wants us to? …
Or would we rather be distracted with ….. ?

We do have free choice, and we can choose to seek Him, Our Lord God, or we can seek …..

Which will we choose?
Can we seek something of Greater Value?

Revelation 3:17-22

17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

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Realise, and Move into, What you Have.

A couple of pictures have come to me, as a dream, recently.

There was a person who was missing a foot, who then just grew a new foot. The one who had grown the new foot, was not used to it.There was an apprehension, of making use of the new foot. But there was a need to use the new foot, in order to realise the benefit, of the new foot.
There was a sense of “Enlarge your tent“, as an underlying theme to the picture. The feeling was one of, “Your tent Has been Enlarged, now make use of it!”

Then there was a second picture, in the same dream.

A quadcopter (radio controlled drone) was being flown inside, in a crowded location. The controller for the quadcopter, was just thrust into a new person’s hands.
The one who had just been handed the controller, just knew that this was very wrong. As such they were desperate to land the quadcopter, whilst also trying to learn how to fly it.
The quadcopter was landed, without any incidents. (No persons were hurt throughout the playing of this picture. 🙂 )
As soon as the quadcopter had landed, it was just removed from the scene. There was a real sense, that it had been removed by someone with good intentions. There was an unspoken feeling, that it would be returned, at the right time, in the right location.

I have been referring to these as pictures, rather than dreams, because as I have been considering them, it just seems to fit better.

Both pictures talk about, something new.

The first picture seems to be a bit more straightforward to me.
You have something new, given to you, that can’t be taken away. But you need to use it, and make use of it, to truly appreciate just what you have.

The second picture speaks to me about how we can feel, if we are ever thrown into the deep end, without any training or experience, of the something new. (The short version.)

In the second picture, the quadcopter represents a new project, to be done. The one who has been put in charge of the project, is the person who has the controller, thrust into their hands.
As soon as they are in control, they just know that things are wrong. (A quadcopter shouldn’t be flown over a large group of people, and being inside makes it even worse. On top of all that, handing the controller to someone who needs to learn how to fly…. it’s just all wrong!)

The one who lands the quadcopter, without incident, does the right thing. It just needed to be done.
This part of the picture speaks to me of taking a time out, hitting the pause button, the moment the project is handed over.
Taking a time out, the moment a project is handed to someone, may not be a popular thing to do. But, if it’s needs to be done, then it should be done.

In the picture, the controller was never taken away, only the quadcopter was removed, by someone with good intentions.
This speaks to me of something being removed, that will be missed, but at the right time, and in the right way, what has been removed, will be returned. Being handed the controller, can be seen as being put in charge of the project, and in the picture, the controller was never removed.

Well, there we have it. Two fun/strange pictures about stepping into something new. 🙂

If these pictures resonate/speak to you in any way, then I would suggest that you ask Our Heavenly Father to highlight which bits apply to you more.
Seeking His thoughts and His guidance, is always going to be the Best route to take.

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Lost a First Love, or Forsaken the Love you had at First?

Is there a difference between the two statements of this post’s title?
On first look, it may appear as if both statements are describing the same thing. But, I’m starting to think that there is a big difference between the two statements.

To put this into context properly, I feel there is a need to quote the orginal passage that I am referring to, as I’m posing my thoughts.

Revelation 2:4
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.

In order to understand the full scripture, it would be good to read Revelation 2:1-7. But my thoughts are going to be on verse 4, in particular. (The full passage is the letter to the church in Ephesus.)

I believe that I have inadvertently, been miss quoting this passage to myself, for quite a while now. 😦
I didn’t mean to, but I think it has just crept in.

Whenever I thought about Revelation 2:4, I have thought of it as if it was losing a first love.
But is the passage actually saying this?

The words that the passage uses are, “You have forsaken the love you had at first.”

A first love is exciting, all consuming, and if we are going to be really honest with ourselves, if it carries on for too long, it can be exhausting.
A good first love, if it follows a good path, will grow into a more mature love. Not a lost love or a love that burns out, but a love that knows a sustainable pace.
I’m thinking of an old ox being yoked to a young ox, where the old ox sets the pace, effectively saying, “In order to last the day, this is the pace you need to go at.”

I hoping that you are able to see the difference that I’m trying to show.
A first love, isn’t necessarily meant to last, but hopefully it will bloom into a mature love, that builds on itself, that does last.

So, can you see that there could be a difference between losing a first love, and forsaking the love you had at first? (Whether that love was a first, adolescent or mature love.)

I really do feel as if I’m splitting hairs here, but I also feel that it is a difference that matters.

When I think of a love that has been forsaken, I think of the nuns in the film Philomena.
The nuns were doing, what could be considered a loving thing, by taking in young pregnant unmarried women, in a time when they were not accepted by society.
But, the nuns appear to have become worn out and frustrated from the hardships of caring for the women, so that they then resented them. It’s seems that they lost any love, for the young women, who were in a difficult situation.

You could say that, the nuns were doing a loving thing, by taking the women in, without any love, by allowing frustrations to be the driving force, in there actions.

Could this be a picture of doing a loving thing, without any love in it?
Forsaking the love you had at first?

If there is any doubt about how bad it could be, to be doing a loving act, without love being the driving force, well, I think that the scripture below, removes all doubts.

1 Corinthians 13
13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

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A Correct Word, at the wrong time, can do Great Damage.

I took a wrap taken out of the freezer just recently. I must have caught the very edge slightly, as the edge broke off in my hand. It made me think, that if I tried to fold the wrap, straight our of the freezer, then it wouldn’t fold, as it is meant to. Instead, it would just break.

Now, a wrap when it’s not frozen, can be easily folded.
It’s what’s meant to happen to it. You are meant to put a filling in it, and then fold it over to make a tasty treat.

But if you tried to fold it when it’s frozen, well, it’s a different matter as it’s brittle, not willing to be folded.
Try to fold a frozen wrap, and it will break! It needs to be defrosted first.

Once it is defrosted, it can then be folded, as it is meant to be, so it can be that useful tasty treat.

It all made me think, can we sometimes know a correct word that needs to be spoken, but, it can be the wrong time to speak it?
Maybe because it will not be received well, for whatever reason?
(Sometimes we may have an idea of the reason, and other times we may have no idea of the reason.)
Do we sometimes need to wait for the right time to speak the correct word?

Our Fathers timing is always going to be best!
We just need to follow His prompting of when to speak, and when to remain quiet. Hearing Our Heavenly Father’s thoughts, could make all the difference.

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Another thought has just come to me.
If we speak a word, as directed by Our Heavenly Father, and then it all seems to go wrong, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have done the wrong thing. (Although sometimes it might be just that.)
But sometimes, things can have a way that they just need to go, before they improve.
Sometimes, do we need to, not be afraid of the pre-breakthrough pressure?

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Do we think that we are better than we are?

This is a question that has been playing on my mind recently.
I’d like you think that I am perfect, but I know that I’m not. 😦
I know this for certain, as the bible tells me so.

Romans 3 10-12
10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11     there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”

So, if the bible tells me that I’m not perfect, as there is no one righteous, then why do I have so much trouble truly knowing and understanding this?

I can know this in my mind, but my actions can speak a different story. My actions can sometimes bring me to the place of arrogance.

I don’t think that I’m generally an arrogant person (please, don’t let me know if you think differently 🙂 ).
I like to think that I’m a seeing and understanding person.
Oh dear, is that arrogance rearing it’s ugly head? (In a post about arrogance.)
Is there any hope for me? (Hopefully, the answer to that one is yes. 🙂 )

Part of my problem is that I can see things and get them very right, but in the same sentence, I can also get things very wrong, on a huge scale, to the point where onlookers can think, “What is going through his head?”

I do actually know this to be true. So when someone points out an error to me, I do want to know, if I have got something wrong.
My outward actions may speak a different story, but if I am wrong, then I would like to know it. So that I can then do better next time.

How do we react to correction is something that I have written about in a previous post of, Sahara desert or Sahara dessert?

Now, the bible also tells us to be bold.

Joshua 1:9
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

2 Timothy 1:7
7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

In the above scripture it talks about us having power, but with love and self-discipline. Does having those last two characteristics make the difference between boldness and arrogance?

If we are operating from a position of love and self-discipline, then are we more likely to be keeping in step with Our Lord God’s will?

So if we are acting in our own strength, could we be heading towards arrogance, but if we are following the Lords prompting, then are we just being bold, acting out of obedience?

Keeping in step with Our Lord God can make all the difference.

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What does it mean, to be Yoked to The Lord?

Matthew 11:28-30

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

In last week’s post, I effectively asked the question, “Can we find our rest, in the work that we should be doing?“
This week’s post, I guess is part 2. 🙂

When we look at the bible passage above, we can see in verse 28 that a rest is available to us, if we are willing to go to Our Lord.
But do we read verses 29 and 30, in order to see how we can enter into the rest, that is available?

Verses 29 and 30 speak of a work to be done.
You don’t put a yoke onto on ox, and then send it out into a field to graze. You put a yoke onto an ox, because there is a work to be done, of some sort. To put a yoke onto an ox, to send it out, into a field to graze, just seems to be a bit mean, to me.

In verse 29, we can also see that we are meant to take on Our Lords yoke. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me”. It matters, who we join ourselves to.
What or who, is the biggest influence, in our lives?

It may still seem a bit strange to associate rest with work, but I can’t, not see it anymore. As I continue to look at it, it just makes more sense to me.

Being yoked, means that a load is shared between the two, who are yoked together, so that a greater work, can then be done, than could be done by one alone.
Is this part of where the rest comes from?
Someone to share our burden with, as we work with, the One we are yoked to?

Being yoked, does mean that there is a need to remain at the same pace, working together. In verse 29, we can see that we are meant to take His yoke onto us and to learn from Him.
I clearly see this as us going at Our Lord’s pace, and not the other way around.

But what does this yoke actually look like?
Sometimes it may seem as if nothing has changed, even after trying to come to Our Lord. We can go through our week, just the same as we usually do, looking for a difference, but not seeing any.

But what if the difference is being yoked to Our Lord, with Our Lord setting our pace of how we should be going, whilst He bears the load with us?
Does He sometimes bear a greater load, than we realise?

If we are tired and weary, is it because there is an element of us trying to do things at our pace, using only our own strength?
If we try to do things at His pace, and relying on His strength to help us, is this where a restful state can then become a reality?

I shared these thoughts with a friend recently, and he said that he could see where I was coming from. He then went onto effectively say that, if he was mindful of Our Lord, by praying or just including The Lord in what he was doing, then things just kind of came together and worked.
But if he lost sight of The Lord, then he could end up being overloaded, and just chasing his tail.

It amazed me to hear a testimony from a friend, agreeing with the thoughts, that have been shared in this post.
Could we all have a similar testimony, if we all came to Our Lord God, and then took on His Yoke?
If we allowed Him to set our pace and let Him bear our load, with us?

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Will we find Our Rest, in the Work that we Should be doing?

Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Yes, I know. The title of this post may seem to be a bit strange. Finding rest, in doing work???
But is there something to it? A yoke does imply that there is a work to do, of some sort.

I’m not suggesting that we go out and find as much work as we can, in order to find rest, that would be a recipe to be overburdened. But what if we can find a work, that brings about a rest?

I do think that we can see this, in action, in 1 Kings 17:7-16. It’s the account of when Elijah was fed by the widow at Zarepath.

There was a famine in the land, and God told Elijah to go to Zarepath, where God had instructed a widow to feed him. (1 Kings 17:9) There was only one problem with this plan. The widow had next to no food.
She was about to go home and make a final meal for herself and her son, and then die. (1 Kings 17:12)

She was not in a restful state, but one of desperation, as Elijah was asking her for some food, as God had directed him to.

How would we respond to a request, like Elijah’s?

“Are you for real? I have next to nothing, and the little that I do have, you want?” Could possibly be one of our reactions???

Fortunately, for all involved, the widow didn’t ultimately react in this way, but did make some food for Elijah, and then some for herself and her son. The result was, that her supply didn’t run out, but a miraculous provision occurred, as Elijah had spoken to her in…

1 Kings 17:14.
14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”

The widow was appointed to provide for Elijah, by God.
In doing her work, she was provided for.
She saw rest, by doing a work, that she was meant to be doing.

Are we able to do likewise?
Can we see the work, that we are meant to be doing?
Then will we do it?
If we can and do, will it then lead to a rest, through doing a work?

One final thought on this is, we are told that she made food for Elijah, herself and her son. She didn’t provide food for everyone in Zarepath, just the ones she was meant to.
Can we sometimes miss our rest, because we take on more than we should do?