From The Manse Window
From the manse window
IHAVE calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother.” What a beautiful picture the psalmist in Psalm 131 paints.
A child is helpless; it has merely to rest in its mother’s arms, having been fed. It doesn’t worry about its future, where the next meal is coming from, who is going to take care of it.
Its only purpose is to rest in its mother’s love. It’s an apt illustration of God’s love for us and our need to trust in him.
But if you’re anything like me, that’s not the reality of your relationship with God. Often I let my anxieties run away with me and my prayers are full of pleading and whining, not peace and rest.
“Lord, you know I need this, so why has that happened?”
We all have our variation on the theme. Such prayers betray a lack of trust, a lack of belief in God’s goodness and his promises to look after us and make even bad things turn out for our good.
The disciples had problems trusting God. Remember when they were in a boat and got caught in a storm?
It must have been bad, because some were fishermen and it would have taken a lot to frighten them. Jesus is asleep and they wake him up, quite roughly, I can imagine, in their panic.
“Lord, don’t you care that we’re going to die?” they cry.
They’re overwhelmed by their circumstances. No-one takes time to reason that if Jesus is in the boat it will be all right, no matter what happens.
Panic’s just our default position as human beings.
The disciples changed after the Resurrection and Pentecost – how could they not after everything they’d witnessed and experienced?
We are living post resurrection, too, and we possess more of the revelation, so, although we try to justify our lack of faith at times, we have no excuse.
Sometimes we need to give ourselves a stern talking to.
“I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother,” the psalmist says.
Mature faith is about choosing to believe God, rather than what the world around us is saying or the feelings that threaten to overwhelm us.
We can’t always control our feelings, but we can choose to stand by faith, to say, “I will trust in his promises and my knowledge of his goodness and all that he has done.”
Feelings will eventually fall into line.
“You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”
The perfect peace comes when we trust, because we take our eyes off the chaos around us and fasten them on Jesus, and that changes our perception of what is really going on and who is really in control.
We want to know what’s around the corner, but we can’t. Nobody knows.
We can either live in a state of constant anxiety or we can calm and quiet our souls like a weaned child with its mother.
I don’t know about you, but I’m still working on it.
I know that it’s right and I want God’s peace in my heart so that I can live a quiet and trusting life and be an example to others who are going through difficult times. Next week: Rev. Andrew Watson celebrates April Fool’s Day!