Resting & Remembering

 Resting & Remembering

“Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat.” Mark 6:31 NLT

After the twelve disciples returned from their ministry of preaching, healing and deliverance in the villages, Jesus knew that they needed to go to a quiet place to rest. However, they could not do so as large crowds were following them wherever they went. And Jesus, filled with the power of compassion, attended to the needs of the huge crowd. After doing so, Jesus went up into the hills to spend time in solitude and prayer in order to recharge his spiritual energies.

Spending time in contemplative prayer is a totally different experience from being in the wilderness. In the wilderness of our problems and struggles we are tempted to turn stones into bread through prayer. But we see in the example of Jesus that the times of contemplative prayer in solitude and prayer are to recharge the power of God’s love in us. For we are not to live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4)

God’s power of love is available to us but the weeds of sin and evil are blockages to the flow of God’s power of love in and through us. After a time of solitude and contemplative prayer, Jesus demonstrated the power of God by walking on water and stilling the storm.  The disciples were terrified as they thought he was a ghost. This story is to open our eyes to the truth that when our hearts are hardened we will not be able to see the power of God at work in our lives (Mark 6:47-52).

Our hearts are hardened when we forget the mercies and wonders of God. We forget our spiritual I.D. - our identity as the children of God and our destiny to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. With hardened hearts we will see miracles only from the human perspective of having our problems solved instead of letting the miracles draw us into contemplative prayer to hunger and thirst for God’s presence. It is so easy to forget about God and to turn away from God when times are good. This was what Moses warned the Jews:

“The Lord your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land, be careful not to forget the Lord , who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. You must fear the Lord your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name.” Deuteronomy 6:10‭-‬13 NLT

When we think we know about the ways of God, our “knowing”  can get in the way of what we truly need to know about God’s ways. Meditating on the scriptures is to feed our souls so that we will not just fill our minds with knowledge but to fill our hearts with the wisdom of “not knowing” - of not letting our knowledge, our “knowing” blind us to the wisdom of God.

It is not just memorizing scripture verses - it is paying attention to what God wants to say to us through scripture. Then the bible will not be an idol but will be God’s Living Word when we see how God is working in our lives. Meditating on the scriptures is a time to rest in God and to remember His Providence, Presence and Power. If one verse of scripture becomes real in our lives each week, we will have lived out 52 verses in a year. Our years in the autumn and winter season of life will then be an adventure rather than a nightmare as we live out one verse a week, 52 verses a year, 520 verses in 10 years and 1040 verses in 20 years!

The fourth week of Lent is the heart of Lent as we prepare for the seed of God’s love to bear fruit in the fertile soil of our hearts. Let us learn to feed on God’s Word so that it will become a Living Word in us.

SDG