BE STILL MY SOUL, BE STILL

Be Still My Soul, BE STILL

Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest.
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.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
JESUS
Matthew 11:28-30

I don’t know about your household, but since the beginning of this year, I feel like my family has been going 100 miles an hour 24 hours a day. Malia and I have been wondering why we are so exhausted all the time. When we stopped the other day to think about the exhaustion, we realized that we have been going to bed around midnight every night and have not had many uninterrupted nights. With restless kids, so many things to do and lack of ability to shut my brain down, sleep has become a rare thing. Many of you can probably relate to that scenario. So how do I get out of this hole that I have made for myself? How do I slow down? Will this rat race that I am in ever stop? On my own, I create bigger holes. On my own, I don’t know how to slow down. On my own, I will only make the rat race worse. Praise God! It’s not completely up to me.
Jesus made it very clear in Matthew 11 that our responsibility is merely to “come” to Him. It is Jesus who will give us rest, though that is easier said than done. I am sometimes guilty of reading scripture and agreeing with what I read, but then when I go to put it into action, I fall short. With everything in life, it is hard to just “come” and lay things at the feet at Jesus. I tend to bring my burdens to Christ, but then I pick them right back up and carry them on my own once again. It is like what Paul says in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” I want to lay my burdens at the feet of Jesus, but do I really trust Jesus to take care of my life? I do trust Him, but in my actions, I often don’t prove that. Am I being too transparent? Am I the only one in this boat? Where do I go from here? I go to the Lord!

O Lord, I cry out - take control of my life!
Take the desire that I have to be in control
away from me.
Help me to be still and know that You are God!
Rid me of my unbelief.
Teach me to trust You.
Father, get me out to the way, so that you can shine through me.
I want to see you do amazing and
wonderful things.
Give me a glimpse of what You have prepared
for me when I totally depend on You.
I long for You to move!

Aaron Hodges