Jesus! I am resting, resting...

Jesus! I am resting resting
In the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart.
Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee,
And Thy beauty fills my soul,
For, by Thy transforming power,
Thou hast made me whole.


I desire so greatly to be able to sing the first few lines of this song; to be able to say to my Lord Jesus that I am completely resting in Him, and in the joy of who He is. It seems that I find myself too busy to truly rest in Him. Joseph Carroll, in his book How To Worship Jesus Christ, talks about the lessons that the Lord taught on prayer and the first being that prayer, “…is aloneness, secrecy, communing with God on the basis of a blood-sprinkled mercy seat.” It was coming to understand what that meant that he says his quiet time was revolutionized. It wasn’t a time of trying to get through his prayer list within a certain amount of time. Instead, he states, “I simply knelt down and quietly meditated upon the fact that I was in the presence of the Lamb of God and worshiped Him.”

I allow my life to be filled with too much noise to allow for that amount of aloneness and quietness. My Lord is holy, and great, and mighty, and beautiful, and has a loving-kindness that endures forever. “Love can only be cultivated adequately in aloneness with the one you love,” according to Carroll. How do I get that aloneness? How do I cultivate that love? These are the things I desire to learn. It seems like an easy thing to get alone, but I wish it were so. I feel the Lord many times calling at my heart, “Come. Just spend time with Me.” But, unfortunately I give myself to other loves.

The first commandment that the Lord gave Moses on that mountain top was, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Jesus, when asked what the greatest of the commandments was said that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, out mind, our soul, and our strength. He is to be the first and foremost in our lives. He is to have preeminence over all other things.
Lord, please forgive me. I confess that I am an idolater and an adulterer. Just as you called the church at Ephesus to repent when they left their first love, I repent Lord. Teach more what it is to worship You. Teach me how to cultivate that love and intimacy with You. Lord, teach me to rest in the joy of who You are, that I might be transformed. Amen.