Fixity Is A Rare Thing

It's amazing how quickly I can run after the things that don't matter as much as God and how slowly I pursue Him at times. We can often be like a heard a wild horses, either following the crowd or running after the next thing. It's hard to "be still and know that God is God" and to trust Him completely. Peace can be found in abundance when we stay near the Shepherd. I have been learning that fact. When we are so in love and dependent on God, that to go more than an hour without entering into His presence seems unbearable...well, that is the sweetest kind of pain we can ever know. God, by His great mercy and kindness, is helping me to be still before Him and find strength in His presence. It's in a wild stallion's nature to always be on the run, but it takes great strength to stand still and allow yourself to be lead. God has been gentle in His breaking of me, bridling of me and leading of me. But I still have a long way to go!

"There is no end to the new methods offered for success, self-realization, fulfillment, understanding, and happiness. Seminars, conferences, and workshops abound. Go to so-and-so, get counseling, a new exercise program, a new diet, another degree, job, husband, house, color scheme. If it's new, it's good. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. "Do not be swept off your course by all sorts of outlandish teachings; it is good that our souls should gain their strength from the grace of God" (Heb 13:8,9 NEB). Fixity of heart is a rare thing and probably always has been. It is easier to follow after the world in its futile pursuit of happiness, simply because we are like sheep and we go astray. To stay quietly by the Shepherd seems harder, but in the end we find there (and nowhere else) our soul's real strength. Pascal wrote, "I have discovered that all the unhappiness of man arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber." Try spending a half hour in a room alone, without music, without television, without even reading. Can you find any peace or happiness there? If not, perhaps you have not begun to learn what is truly important." - e.e.