Wait. Rest.

Do you ever have days where you feel exceptionally weak?  Like you can't take another moment of whatever challenges you are facing and you begin to doubt that God really knows how much you can handle?  I was there yesterday.  Yes.  On Christmas day, I was there.  The one day of the year where everything is supposed to be perfect...after all, it is the day we celebrate our Savior coming to earth and being born...the prince of peace.  Why was I struggling so much?  Without going into details, let's just say I was just really focusing on self and what I wanted, neglecting to think on those things above.  Yes, I had no control over the circumstances which were causing me to feel weak and ready to give up, but I did have control over where I put my thoughts.  I was not choosing to live what I believe.  Sometimes our lives get so loud with everything that we can't hear that still small voice beckoning us to come to Him and rest.  We all get tired.  I needed to rest.  Physically.  Emotionally. Spiritually.  God sent rest to us yesterday in the form of a friend who directed us to a passage found in Psalm 25. As he read, I focused on a few of the verses:

Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.
        God teaches through the paths in which He leads us on!

Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way. (8)
         God is good and will show me, a sinner, the way!

The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way. (9)
         God teaches the teachable!  Help me be teachable, Lord.
  
What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth. (12-13)
        God will put me at ease when I let Him teach me in the way He has chosen for me!
  
Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net. Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.  The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses. (15-17)
        God wants me to turn my focus to Him!  Even David felt the pull of the nets...

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee. (21)
        God works in His perfect time!  I need to wait.

As our friend was sharing from his heart, I couldn't help but think of the 2nd verse of the hymn Come Thou Found in which we sing "Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come."  It is here that I will grow and learn to trust and then be able to come back here to the remembrance of what God did which in turn will help me over even greater hurdles down the road.  I cried.  The relief flooded my heart when I realized that my focus was turning from self to Him once again.  Yes.  I could now take another moment of this circumstance because God is my stone of help and by that Help I can continue on, and press toward the mark.

The miracle of Christmas is God with us.  The miracle of yesterday was once again choosing to remain in that miracle of Christmas:  GOD WITH ME.