My recent efforts to live a servant-hearted life have been more wrought with frustration than effective wringout out I would say. Last fall our family jumped into foster care and a leadership role through our church all the while Hannah and I were both starting new jobs, we decided to home school our 6 year-old and simultaneously found ourselves in a more demanding stage of parenting. The last several months could be described as exhausting to say the least. Joy, hope and contentment have been hard to come by.
When Jesus said that the weary and burdened can come to him for rest did He really mean it? (Matthew 11:28). I hope so. Lately, I found myself having a hard time keeping up with the pace of normal everyday life and the degree of brokenness that surrounds us in the world. The burden is heavy and the emotional, spiritual and physical toll is exhasuting most days. I find that my biggest desire is for contentment, a joyful spirit and soulful rest amidst life’s daily struggles.
I’d thought for a while that maybe my exhaustion was due to a crazy season of life that would come and go with passing time but one such season has inevitable led to another...and another....this has been the pace of life for several years now. So what I’ve come to realize is that life is full of crazy seasons and that in following God we are promised no different; but the difference is that God promises to be enough in craziness, if only we will let Him.
Nehemiah told God’s people in a difficult time that, “The Joy of the Lord [was] their strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10). This is certainly the type of strength and a unique defining characteristic that our wandering world needs to see from those who claim to follow Christ. Certainly joy that is not contingent on circumstances, deep, authentic, lasting and eternal joy is something that everyone seems to be searching for these days. We all search for joy in the food we eat, the way we feel, the way we look, the fitness group that we attend or the amount of satisfaction we find in our job. The trouble is we all have bad says, slow days, sick days or unproductive days and can feel our joy wavering as a result. Lord we need your everlasting joy more than ever today.
King David talks about joy and how difficult it can be to attain and maintain. He says, “restore to my the joy of my salvation,” in Psalm 51:12. As king, David had ample reason to feel satisfied and secure yet he finds himself longing for the deep joy and lasting contentment that we are in search of today. A “pure heart” and “right” or “steadfast” spirit are prerequisites joy to take root according to David, and I think we should pat attention to what the kind has to say.
A pure and clean heart, one with a solitary focus, is difficult to come by these days with countless commitments and could be opportunities begging for our attention and our time. Only by “calling on the Lord [every] evening, morning and at noon,” (Psalms 55:16-17) by continually coming under the promises and teachings of His word throughout the day do we have a chance to maintain a pure heart that is capable of experiencing deep and lasting joy.
In recent weeks I have felt the need for Christ’s contentment and a lasting joy most in the life of our family. Kathy Koch says that contentment is “confidently living life as it is,” and I have often been guilty of missing the present, the “as it is,” part of life because am am thinking, worrying or consumed with something that has yet to happen in the future. This effects Hannah and the boys most of all.
So when our pastor was talking recently about Ephesians 5 recently and the importance of our wives finding protection and security and safety if the overflow of Christ life and love and joy and contentment in us, “the washing of the water with the word,” this meant something to me. There are so many times when I have so little to give at the end of the day, no overflow whatsoever, and I have often blamed that on being tired or the craziness of the circumstances going on that day but this excuse is not going to cut it any longer. The craziness of this world, the brokenness of our culture is only growing more severe and that means that we cannot expect the demands and the “squeeze” on ourselves, our spouses or our kids to lessen over time. The opposite is likely to occur. This means that the solution to feeling worn out, tired, wrung out and spent is not just in doing less but also is doing more to continually submit ourselves under the life giving, thirst quenching wate Rolf God’s word and His promised. Only in doing this are we going to have overflow enough to seep into the hearts and lives of our wives, kids and the parched world around us.
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