When the quiet places draw me in I feel the pull of grace heavy upon my soul. As I follow that prompting , I find myself immersed in wonder and mystery that is Christ. Either in the calm early morning when the world is waking slowly, or the late cool evenings when the night hours are taking over, these times of silence are like a respite for my busy heart.
I covet the quiet places, yet stillness is immensely hard for me because being able to shut off my thoughts is a struggle.
The struggles remind us of our insufficiency and our deep need for His grace. Settling into the pause, His presence provides us the escape that allows our busy minds to unwind. We need that, friend. We need to run away to be with Him in order to be ready to meet whatever is ahead of us.
However, these quiet places are more than the early morning devotions we set aside. They are more than quiet time and planned study in the Word.{We. Need. Those. Things. They are all Good!} But it is deeper than hiding His Word in our heart because it is living with Him in every part of my being. Only with Him in me is that ever possible.
Rather than a prescribed pattern or remedy, the quiet space, where our soul is called to dwell, is simply being IN Christ in all that we do.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away, through the blood of Christ we have been brought near. He is our peace. He has made us both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition.. – Ephesians 3:2
It sounds simple, really. {Maybe it is for you.} But, friend, I sometimes vacillate between running into the arms of grace with my head and heart knowing I belong there and bowing before the throne of grace wondering how I have the right to be there. Why do I circle this same mountain again and again? In Christ, grace is tangible and I realize that it is His righteousness that keeps me close to the still peace that is Him.
The truth is, He calls us to come and find rest, rescue and rejuvenation in only one place. IN Him.
This is where I want to be found regularly. I want to be found waiting upon His approach and anticipating His descent into my reality with such fervor and passion that the waiting becomes a foretaste of the glory of just being close to Him.
For our sake, He made Christ to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. – 2 Corinthians 5:21
This morning as I waited for the sun to appear on my horizon, I sat listening to His world awaken. I never cease to be amazed at the mystery of His majesty.
Wonder of all that I see leads to amazement in the vision field of my living.
Awe for all He has done compels me to worship the very One who completes me.
Every single moment leads in the sacred contemplation of holiness.
And I think of Isaiah’s vision of God in the Heavens, seated on a throne, high and lifted up. His very presence filling every crevice of available space…. especially the quiet spaces…. with glory.
Immediately I want to lift hands in worship, to bend back my head and let my body soak up the brilliant rays extending from the Father of Lights, letting my soul become full of His goodness.
Yet, like Isaiah, I find myself bent in shame and in repulsion of my own issues. I put that sign up that says, Woe is me! I am undone. I am ruined. My lips are not clean and I don’t deserve to look upon the Holy One with eyes that have been altered to truth enough times to be tainted.
…I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up, and the skirts of His train filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim…crying Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is filled with His glory. Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone and ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips… Then an angel flew to me, with a live coal in his hand…taken from the altar. And with it he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is atoned for and forgiven.- Isaiah 6: 1-3,5-7
So I wait in quiet spaces, encouraged, letting His love fill those tender places where living has beaten me down, waiting for the fullness of grace to meet me here. The wonder and amazement pull me close enough to reach out. The awe and majesty of His glory are more than enough to pull me in and lead me to sing the ancient song of praise with the heavenly host.
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord!
And I am truly undone because He meets me here. Because His grace is sufficient for all my weaknesses, making Him both my strong tower and my valiant defender against the onslaught of accusations that threaten to remind me over and over of my failures or near-success.
And near-success is more crippling than failure, isn’t it?
At least when we fail we can be like Micah when he rebuked his enemy. We can rise up in confidence, knowing our redeemer is lifting us up and dusting us off. ( Micah 7:8) Those times when we just miss it, we tend to let our ‘earn it to get it’ mentality blind us from the victory we actually walked through. The near-success, is seen as worse than a failure, and eventually keeps us from receiving the touch of the altar coal upon our soul. But in Christ, we start to see the process more clearly. We see through the haze into the mystery of grace. The burning touch of His anointing brings forth the redirection which always leads towards redemption. The stillness always leads us closer to Him.
These quiet times, friends, we need them in the morning , in the evening, and in the very middle of our day.
They are the breath prayers we speak, the gentle breeze on our cheek, and the soft assurance our souls seek.
They are the stillness and the pause that comes for us in all the victories, all the missteps, and all the almosts that filter through our days.
They are the moments where goodness and mercy rain upon our souls, bringing the His strength and sufficiency to us at just the right time.
They are the gateway to grace which allows us to walk through into the quietness that resides fully In Christ.
In the stillness we wait and in the chaos we pause for Him, for the quiet that comes with His entrance to fill our soul with the goodness and mercy that always follows.
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning [to Me] you shall be saved; in quietness and in (trusting) confidence shall be your strength. – Isaiah 30:15
Today I am praying for the quiet places to be healing moments in the busy of your day bringing you the strength to sing out a Holy Hallelujah!
Linking up with friends for the journey:
SDG Gathering, #TellHisStory, CoffeeForYour Heart, My Lens and Pen, Three Word Wednesdays, Wednesday Prayer Girls, Thought Provoking Thursdays, Grace and Truth, Fellowship Fridays, Counting My Blessings, Faith and Fellowship Blog Hop, Missional Women,Still Saturday, Saturday Soiree, The Weekend Brew, Give Me Grace.
I also crave for times when I am still and dwell deeply on His Word. I understand the struggle to shut off my thoughts and just focus!
Thank you for Blessing my heart today.
Many Blessings to you.
“…being IN Christ in all that we do.” Oh, yes. I’m taking a moment to soak this in . . . all of this.
While I’m so thankful for my mornings with Him, I don’t want to loose sight of how He’s always beckoning for us to come to Him, in all things.
Btw, your photos are beautiful. 🙂
Love you. And love that a text from you came through while I was reading this.
This is so good and so hard! Why is it so hard to be still? Thankful for God’s grace!
“I covet the quiet places, yet stillness is immensely hard for me because being able to shut off my thoughts is a struggle.” –> Oh, me too, friend. Me too. Thanks for your reflections and encouragement here. So glad you linked this up at #ThreeWordWednesday.
What a beautifully written post!
I soaked up all the words – I think because this has been a desire of my heart lately, to truly live “in Christ” throughout the day.
I loved your suggestions. I was especially struck when you said, “In the stillness we wait and in the chaos we pause for Him, for the quiet that comes with His entrance to fill our soul with the goodness and mercy that always follows.”
Thank you so much. This encouraged my heart today. 🙂
“So I wait in quiet spaces, encouraged, letting His love fill those tender places where living has beaten me down, waiting for the fullness of grace to meet me here. ” …I love this and you’ve given so many of us a gift by putting words to thoughts we all share.
I saw that you referenced Micah 7:8. Verse 7 has been my journey verse for a while: “I will wait expectantly; my God will hear me.”
Thanks for all the encouragement you left on my post yesterday. What a sweet gift that also was.
Embracing the Journey!
Christi
You described the quiet places beautifully because you described the heart of Christ. He cherishes being with us and when we stop everything and join Him, He is blessed and we are too. Blessed you shared this at The Weekend Brew. I was hoping to see you there this weekend! 🙂
I love this: “The truth is, He calls us to come and find rest, rescue and rejuvenation in only one place. IN Him.” My issues this week as the first week of summer dawns is that I cannot seem to find my rhythm in Him. My quiet times feel rushed, I’m flustered, constantly surrounded by people. And it’s good and I’m present, but I miss the peace. And probably because I forgot to invite Him in – into everything, even my lack of rhythm.
Awesome! I love how you made this so practical – I often feel the longing to be in the quiet place and forget how easy that longing can be satisfied if I will just put forth a little effort ahead of time.
The photos and the Words are wonderful, and relying on our Lord is all we can ever do. Thank you for sharing so beautifully.
Beautiful, Dawn. You’ve articulated my own heart in a way that proves our sisterhood of a type much more binding than biology. Thank you for pointing us toward our Savior – not just once or twice or even three times a day. But constantly. For it’s then that we’re free to live the power-full, joy-full, peace-full life He died to secure us.
I’m glad you linked up with us at Grace & Truth! This will be my feature at Satisfaction Through Christ this week.