Lord, Grant Me Rest

Hello all!

What a crazy year January has been! I am so glad it is now come to an end, and we are now in February.

Lately, I have been dealing with a lot of tooth pain. Yesterday, however, it had gotten to a point where is it was unbearable. I wept the past few days due to the immense pain I was in. I couldn’t eat, sleep or control my emotions – I felt like I was loosing my mind.

I just wanted everything to stop and God to eliminate my pain. 

I was praying to God hoping he would hear my literal cries and just somehow magically  remove any pain I had. Doing this was fine, but I was treating God like some kind of genie that would do anything I asked when I asked. I was testing the power of God, instead of trusting him to lead me in the correct direction to resolve my problem. Now please do not misunderstand me, God CAN do ANYTHING, but only in HIS timing and will. Now if through faith, what we ask God for is aligned with his plan, then what you ask for may more than likely happen. BUT, we should not test the magnificent glory and power of God like that. Personally, I was waiting for God to display his love for me by resolving my pain. 

Friends, how wrong is that? Testing the love Christ has for me, by seeing what he’ll do for me. That is not a relationship. That is not faith. That is sin and selfishness. I wanted to see God perform a magical act on me, so I could declare and know how much he loves me. God has already revealed how much he loves me time and time again. He sent his ONLY son to die on the cross to bear the burdens of my sins. God shows me grace and mercy everyday, for everyday I fall short to the glory of God. Everyday I stumble and fall, but God continues to be right by my side and pick me up. HE LOVES ME and HE LOVES YOU! 

God loves us. He wants the best for us and the best is him. He doesn’t like to see us hurt, but he knows this temporary pain is nothing that we can’t endure. Friends, life is like a tooth ache. It is painful and it can drive us crazy, However, it is temporary. It will pass and there is help to resolve it. You go to the dentist and they fix whatever it is that is causing the pain. Sometimes that means, extracting the whole tooth or just refilling it to make it whole again, but whatever the situation is, it will remove the pain. The healing process may be long and difficult, but when it’s over, what once bothered you will not be a problem any longer. God is the dentist we all need. He wants to remove any and all pain from our lives, but we need to trust him to do his job and know that his overall goal is to make us better.

Friends, we serve such an amazing and wonderful God, and he wants to give us rest. He understands our struggles and wants to assist us in any way possible, but we need to tell him what hurts. We need to be honest about what hurts, how we got it and be sure to follow the post care instructions to make sure we do not get it again. Do not think you just have to endure the pain that is going on in your life right now, turn it over to God and let him help you. The Lord encourages us to cast our burdens onto him and that is exactly what we should do. We were not called to endure this life alone, but with community and Christ. Believe me, living life is so much better when you aren’t doing it alone.

Praying for you always.

-Alicia Xo