Finding rest in your minds

I am resting, this morning, in quietness.  I don't mean sleeping (because I have to be awake in case I fall in too deep a sleep and miss my morning midterm exam!)  I'm just not thinking about things as much.  I think it's time I slow my mind down from all the hyper awareness.  I need to rest my self in the finished work of Jesus.  I need my whole and complete redemption to be the pillow I lay my head against.  Here.  Quieting, quieter, quiet.

(But what a funny looking word: quiet)

"I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling,"

Sometimes I get so busy and stimulated by all the understanding and clarity of connecting concepts about myself and God and others that I busily bypass my actual calling.  What am I called to versus what am I pulled to?  Things pull me all day, both consciously and unconsciously. When I don't re-center my self in Christ, and His fulfillment of all things for me, meaning I have nothing more than to believe that I am His and He is mine (that closeness called holiness), when I bypass this very calling, I get pulled into all kinds of directions.  For example, I am constantly being unconsciously pulled to things that are valuable.  Things like health, understanding, relationships, people and personal goals.  These things are valuable!  But these things are "trimmings," and by trimmings I mean they can be cut off if and when they go badly.  They are not essential, because they are not Jesus.  God is God, and He is relational.  He is not a feeling or a goal to be attained.  He is a person wanting to love and hold me.  He is a person wanting to meet me where I am, even if where I am is in my personal shame and failure.  He is a person who reminds me what I am called to: himself.  That's it.  

"what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength."

-Ephesians 1:18-19

When I'm with Jesus, I mean when our relationship is up and down, feeling good and feeling bad, attuned and disrupted but repaired and attuned together again, I know Him more deeply.  He tells me.

I'm with Him, and He's with me.  Granted I am more likely than not walking on eggshells (of my own doing because of how unworthy or worthless I feel) He understands, and reassures me of His unconditional, unwavering, unrelenting love for me- even in that...especially in that.  

Holiness, or closeness, of this genuine kind is my inheritance.  How He can bring me closer to Him, to holiness, is the sudden center of my place with Him, and it is where I am with God and God is with me- rest.  Quiet.  

And this is a daily hope of mine.  To daily be re-centered in the hope of my calling: loving Him.  That's it.  

"Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to rule over the hill country of Esau, but the kingdom will be the Lord’s."

-Obadiah 1:21

There will be saviors in this life that save us from health issues, relationship problems, people problems, or obstacles to our goals and dreams, but the Kingdom will be the Lord's.  If saved from some but not from others, find Him there.  Know your inheritance in the place with Him, because the kingdom is His- the one who loves you so much.  God loves you so much He gave up His one and only Son to be clothed in our despicable sins that made us hate God, taking them into death--killing our sins--in order that we would see His marvelous love and love Him instead with our new sinlessness given to us in exchange.  And this not by works, but by grace.  By grace.  By grace.  By grace.  By grace.  By grace.  By grace.  By grace.  By grace.  Through faith alone.

Jesus loves you,

Jmegrey