Rachel is learning to swim. She’s not afraid to go under water. She’s not afraid to jump in. Her confidence is greater than her skills.
But she doesn’t want to stay still when she’s supposed to be floating. She gets in position to float, and then wiggles around, which forces her to sink. Instead of surrendering to stillness that brings control in the water, she wants to take the action into her own hands, which actually gives her less control over her body.
Sometimes I’m like that with my faith.
Instead of being still and letting God work through me, I want to fix and do and plan and control. But God has been teaching me about living rescued and resting in faith.
For me, resting in faith often means slowing down.
I recently heard singer Tauren Wells say something on Annie Downs’ podcast that I can’t shake:
“Rush always leads to ruin. … Everything is instant approval, immediate gratification, and that always leads to ruin. What I’m trying to figure out is if I trust God with the pace, then I can I can actually live from rest and I can get to the reward God has promised me, which by the way, is always Jesus.”
This is what’s hard right now for me: Besides not knowing what I should do more times than I care to admit, parenting exposes all my own sin, which is just plain hard, especially when I’ve got a family depending on me.
I need to let God change my defense mechanisms. Naturally, I want to fight it — everything — which can come across as mean and cold when really I’m just afraid and uncertain. I want to move faster and bark orders like I’m in the one in control and rush any soul work God is in the midst of doing.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
I fight the wrong enemy with human words rather than the spiritual battles with Christ. On bad days, I fight my son’s behavior instead of teaching his heart, choose to worry about what might happen instead of trusting the God I know, and allow frustrations to replace truth.
I need to sink into what I know to be true,
stretch out my arms, and float on faith.
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It’s been one of those seasons where everything I read and hear is coming back to this lesson in living rescued, in floating in faith. Here are the some of the resources that have been encouraging and teaching me:
- Annie Downs’ That Sounds Fun Podcast (especially the recent episodes with Brandon Heath and Tauren Wells)
- “This I Know: Trusting Your Unknown Future to a Known God” by Laura Dingman
- Love God Greatly’s “Fear & Anxiety: Learning to Overcome with God’s Truth” study
- “100 Days to Brave: Devotions for Unlocking Your Most Courageous Self” by Annie Downs
- Brandon Heath’s “Faith Hope Love Repeat” album
- “Keep a Quiet Heart” by Elisabeth Elliot
- Ellie Holcomb’s “Red Sea Road” album
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#PorchStories friends, earlier this week I shared my review of Kate Motaung’s “A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging” and am giving away an autographed copy. Be sure to enter to win!
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