[Simple Truth] Worried About Life
He reached out His hand to me and so I went. He invited me to sit with Him and so I let go of everything else I was clutching and we sat in the garden of my heart.
In silence at first. The comfort and peace of His presence seeped into the cracks of my soul. An audible deep breath was let go.
Then there was an unloading of the weighty things sinking my heart and crowding my mind. Being heard is everything.
Then silence again as I listened for His voice. For the assurances I craved, the wisdom I lacked, anything else I just didn’t know I needed.
Turns out familiarity of what He’d already spoken had hardened my heart and mind to the truth of what was spoken. In His gentle and kind way, He turned the light on to fear hiding in the corner; I hadn’t seen that there. Then He repeated to me again the familiar. The familiar that in this moment of grace felt new: “I say to you, do not be worried about your life…are you not much more than they?”
It’s as if this truth is too simple. I guess I feel the need to complicate things. Do not be worried about your life — Jesus simply stating this way back then and again to me now — is just another way of Him asking, Do you believe I am who I say I am? As with anything else I struggle with, the bottom line is the answer to this question: Am I willing to trust Him? Am I willing to believe He will sustain me, uphold me, keep me? Every day’s troubles, the climate of our culture, the unknowns of our futures - these are weights too impossible for us to carry or bear up under.
It’s just that we like to know and have a semblance of control in our lives and so we try to carry them. Or maybe we feel it’s our duty to do so. But the life of faith is walking through the unknown while rejoicing in who God is. The life of faith is clinging to the truths founded in Him and faithfully walking in them, and then leaving the rest to Him - without worry.
By the end of my time sitting with Jesus, I was feeling hidden in Him once again: troubles laid at His feet, mind renewed by His Word, and heart reunited in truth. I got up feeling light and filled with hope. I’m not sure why I’m always surprised by this. I’m a fool, that’s why! A fool to forget and a fool to ever think I can’t unclench what’s filling my hands to make time to sit with Him.
Moments with Jesus are life-giving. Moments within the white space of quiet help stay my mind on Christ, making life feel like a gift instead of a burden. We must keep making space to sit with Jesus. We must take Him at His Word. It’s that simple.
If you’d like a guide to help you process this simple truth in your own sitting with Jesus, download this Garden Notes Document.
Scripture used in this post: Matthew 6:25-34; Psalm 119:116-117
