Just checking in here to let you know that we are currently running an online Reflections in Righteousness course. There are 13 of us taking the course from all over the country. We are in week 3, The Word of the Cross which speaks about dying to self and letting go through the gift of the Cross.Here are some things that God brought before me in my readings today that I wanted to share:

There is so much to think about and learn about the process of letting go. And yet when it all boils down to it, thinking and learning about it don't necessarily help us get very far along, we have to DO it! There's a certain amount of letting go (abandoning self-will and surrendering fully to God) that we can do ourselves, but there is yet a deeper letting go that God works in us as He gently, by His grace,  gives us the experiences, events and encounters that help us find the courage to release our grasp on what we know.

I am currently reading a book called When the Heart Waits by Sue Monk Kidd. (Thanks Suebles for your recommendation!) It is all about this process of inner change. This morning I wanted to share with you something very precious I was reminded of as I read.

In lesson one this was Belinda-Marie's prayer:

For this course, I asked the Lord to bring what He will and show me a place of sanctuary within me…I would like for the Lord to use this course to show me that place within my heart.

In the book, the author talks about the process of metamorphosis, which a caterpillar enters when it spins a cocoon. When beginning to form a chrysalis the caterpillar forms a spiny little protuberance at the end of its abdomen called the cremaster. It's like a patch of Velcro that fastens the pupa in the cocoon and holds it in place. It's the anchor point, the place from which the caterpillar hangs as it waits and changes and becomes new. She goes on to liken this to the Center or quiet core within us where God's Spirit dwells. (Do you not know that… God's Spirit dwells in you? 1 Cor. 3:16)

"Here at this inmost center of our being, a place where we are deeply and profoundly known and loved by God, is the Presence in our midst. It's here that we attach ourselves to God. But this is also where God attaches to us. Ultimately, the still point is a love meeting, an embrace. Hildegard wrote,

God hugs you.

You are encircled

by the arms

of the mystery of God.

God's hug. What a wonderful image! That circle is your still point. And you form your cremaster by attaching to this inner place of loving embrace with the Divine."

What a wonderful image this is of our place of sanctuary. Our minds get so clogged with the events of each day and that's when we need to pause and reconnect ourselves to this still point within.

For me this speaks volumes because God gave me my own picture of the 'still point within' a couple of years ago in the form of a black and white oil painting of a newborn baby cradled in the hands of a Father. It hangs on my bedroom wall. Over and over again he has used this to remind me that I am always held firmly in his hands in that quiet place within. In the words of a song, Majesty, "Your grace has found me just as I am, empty-handed but alive in Your hands." That's the bottom line for me whenever I feel the stresses of daily living pulling me from my rest in Him.

May you rest in God's hug today!

Amen.

Entering God's rest is one of my favorite studies.  Why?  Because I'm one of the busiest "Martha" type people I know!  I frequently need to hear these words.  Everytime I read "My work is already finished...there's nothing more to do" I can't help but feeling astonished and challenged.  Ah ha, challenged.  Busy people love that word. 

I'm basking in His respose right along with you.

Love,

Jaque

Lesson Seven-Day Two

for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work.. Hebrews 4:10

Father, let me rest...from all that I think I do, all that I feel I need to do, all that I want to do.

}"Draw a line in the sand"...put up sign posts along the way as warning signs that you are going your own way, working too much IS trying to accomplish something in your own effort. To much work BECAUSE I've already done it, there is no more to be done. You will find peace and quiet in ME ALONE, not time management, a to do list but in seeking me daily, each morning and stopping by those warning signs through out the day and making ME your focus again.{

As I sat before the Lord this hymn came to mind:

"O soul, are you weary and troubled?

No light in the darkness you see?

There's light for a look at the Savior

And life more abundant and free!"