Issue 115
You know you are supposed to be peaceful and Content; your faith means that you are part of a community of people who profess to be ordered by the spirit of God – yet you feel restless. You are unsettled in your soul and you don’t feel at ease in your work and find it difficult to concentrate. You find yourself listless and unfocused, having trouble planning your day or finishing a task. No sooner do you start one task than another one crowds in on your mind. So how do you handle this restlessness or sense of being unsettled, and where is God in it?
Perhaps it would help to recognise that there may be one or more of a variety of reasons for your condition. Paul was anxious because of his concern for the churches in his care (which was his work). Pilate’s wife was concerned about a dream that had disturbed her sleep. Elijah was struggling because he came to the wrong place and God had to ask him what he was doing there. Peter got into trouble due to the denial of his faith and not listening to Jesus. Jonah was disturbed because of disobedience, and Job because of his obedience. So the mere fact of being unsettled is not an indication of the cause; more insight is needed.
You may also like to consider that whatever the cause, it is neither hidden nor problematic to God. You may not see all the reasons but this does not blind the Almighty. Recognising the multi-layered possibilities in the power of God – a constant route to a better place – seems to derive from an open dialogue with God. Men and women down the centuries speak of gaining a new perspective when praying and worshipping – such as David, who had almost slipped and lost his foothold; then he entered the sanctuary and things started to make sense. Jonah, Peter and Elijah gained clarity and strength as they spoke or even argued with God.
And yet sometimes, even in recognising all this, clarity and peace remain elusive or distant. It’s almost as if we cannot find our own hearts or our own minds. Busyness gives us no space to stem the flow of unsettling emotions.
I would suggest to you, that this is why David asked God to be the search engine of his soul, to know his heart and to find his anxious thoughts. He asked God to find the offending problems and get him back on track. Sometimes we have to pray to know how to pray and ask God to show us what to ask for. It’s another kind of unsettling dynamic, but more productive.
Psalm 139:23-24
23Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
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Geoff Shattock
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