Though the angry surges roll
On my tempest driven soul,
I am peaceful, for I know,
Wildly though the winds may blow,
I've an anchor safe and sure,
That can evermore endure.
Mighty tides about me sweep,
Perils lurk within the deep,
Angry clouds o'ershade the sky,
And the tempest rises high;
Still I stand the tempest's shock,
For my anchor grips the Rock.
I can feel the anchor fast
As I meet each sudden blast,
And the cable, thought unseen,
Bears the heavy strain between;
Through the storm I safely ride,
Till the turning of the tide.
Troubles almost 'whelm the soul;
Griefs like billows o'er me roll;
Tempters seek to lure astray;
Storms obscure the light of day;
But in Christ I can be bold,
I've an anchor that shall hold.
chorus:
And it holds, my anchor holds;
Blow your wildest, then, O gale,
On my bark so small and frail;
By His Grace I shall not fail,
For my anchor holds, my anchor holds.
by Daniel Townes 1930
This is were I want to be mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
At Rest......
to wait
Keeper, I've been thinking quite a bit about having a heart at rest recently. Maybe this is because I'm not there yet although that's where i really want to be too. I feel that rest at times but I also feel that rest(lessness) within, that internal struggling and warring within.
ReplyDelete"To have a gentle and quiet spirit is to have a heart of faith, a heart that trusts in God, a spirit that has been quieted by His love and filled with His peace. Not a heart that is striving and restless... "He will quiet you with His love" (Zephaniah 3:17). A woman of true beauty is a woman who in the depths of her soul is at rest, trusting God because she has come to know Him to be worthy of her trust." (Captivating - John & Stasi Eldridge)
That's it! That's what I want...
In a setting of chaos comes a verse in Psalm 46:10. "Be still..." Draw aside. Slow down. Find silence. Quiet the heart. Calm the thoughts. Tune out. Listen. Breathe in deep. Exhale softly. "...and know that I am God." The Great and Mighty Warrior. Defender. Provider. Prince of Peace. The Gracious One. My Safe Place.
When I am still before Him, I find my heart is at rest. My rest(lessness) comes when i see the storm and the waves and lose sight of the One who says "Quiet! Be still!" (Mark 4:39).
Keeper, your anchor will hold. He will protect and hold you fast. Rest assured.
Lovely,
ReplyDeleteIs your restlessness a stirring up your passion to do something for your Master ? or do you think it is more a restlessness that you just are not "'beautiful"' enough yet? (not talking physical beauty ... more the spiritual beauty)
I feel strongly that you can be at rest and restless! I feel that your passion (fire in the belly) rises up and living out your passion is what we are designed to do. It is scary to fly. At this point in my life, I have to do the flying on my own. I don't have a marriage support. I am now learning to draw on my family support. But often I feel I must fly on my own. This is scary. So I feel this restlessness yet I have seen God working around me and I feel at rest.
Now to the other kind of restlessness. I think I should call it the things I want but I am not getting. Honestly, I feel I would be a great teampartner in a passionate marriage. God has said no or maybe wait. So I have this bit of restlessness. When I feel it, I start praying to my Great Lover. In fact if you were listening to my prayers you might say it sounds much like how I would talk to an earthly love. He is constant. He is always in my life. If I fell off the face of the earth, He would move everything out of His way to find me. This begins to calm my wants ... my restlesness.
Yes, restlessness comes to me when I see the storms too. Especially when I look at the earthly events wondering what God is going to do. I look and pray to see the God-Currents that stir underneath every event. Every "But God" & "then they will know I am God" that you find in the Bible is God interupting evil.
I am guessing your age here ... thinking maybe late 20's. I thought wow I am thirty .. yeah ... I felt smarter and more stable in who I was. Funny thing is that with each passing year I have begun to feel more secure. Starting in 2003 I totally changed for the better. This year my faith is much stronger. And my love for God is more intimate.
We are much like wine. Better with age. Each rough path in our journey just gives us a better taste.
what kind is your restlessness?
You know what ? I see God working with you ... I have been blessed by you.... and by God who had you stumble across my blog.... What a Great Lover He is.....
Keeper,
ReplyDeleteYou got me thinking...again! Thank you :-)
I think my restlessness is both. That there is stuff in me that i can't express through my life right now. I'm yearning and longing for what i need to see flow out of my life. My spirit groans out. It's a pacing in the spirit because what's inside hasn't found it's way out. Because what's inside isn't always clear to me. My heart is being stirred up... i need to pour it out of my life... But it's also a restlessness for more... i am more than I have yet become. I long for more. I see where i have come from and am so so grateful but i see where i need to be, where i want to be, and I'm not there yet. I see who I am, who I want to be and who I'm becoming. I feel restless. Impatient maybe?
You're a good guess! I'm 27 with a birthday coming up later this month. Over the last few years God has done a deep work in my life, showing me to unlearn many things that people have put on me and then relearn them as from God's heart, perspective and truth. In many ways i have become a woman broken and undone. As I allowed God right up close, those hard barriers of self protection and isolation were penetrated at last! I am more the real me than i have ever been, i am also weaker (this is the weakness that His power needs to be made perfect through), more vulnerable as a result of losing those barriers.
You encourage me, you inspire me Keeper. I see your heart through your words, I hear you living your adventure with joy, passion and delight and I love it! I cheer you on, Keeper! And my heart determines to join you in enjoying the adventure and mysteries unfolding in my life...
Hey, did you know I was a detective? nah, just kidding ... I watch for clues. I made a guess that you were in your 20's first then I had a confirmation of sorts!
ReplyDeleteLovely,
So you would probably discribe your heart like a lake in the spring or fall (can't remember which ... could happen both seasons) where the water is muddy because the lake is switching things up. ( as you can see I am not very good in the science dept) It happens for a season and then the water is clear for the summer. The good thing is there is movement.
You are making me think on "more vulnerable as a result of losing those barriers." Actually I am going to do some talking to God. This is a hard one. I want to go back through my rough patches and see what happened there.
More mystery!!!!
It is encouraging to me to have found another warrior princess. It shows me God is acknowledging the passion that is coming from my heart.....
He talks about the heart being the wellspring of life. Mine doesn't always seem to me to be like a wellspring, it can seem a bit muddy and unclear (like your lake). But yes, there is movement! That gives me hope.
ReplyDeleteFor me, although it has been hard, vulnerability and weakness has proved to be a good thing. It has enabled me to feel again. To love and be loved by my Great Lover. To feel pain and accept the need it reveals. To be real to myself and who I am, even if other people can't or won't accept it because I am no longer who they think i am or who they want me to be. I think this is one place i have felt most vulnerable as often times love had seemed conditional to me. It meant opening myself up to the risk of rejection, judgement and critisism, of learning to trust. I am growing more confident and secure in who my Maker has made me, it has been a journey of discovery, I am getting stronger, becoming more sure...
What is the mystery you have found revealed about vulnerability?
ahhh Lovely, the verse you talk about is on my index cards that I carry around with me for my meditation. Prov. 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of Life."
ReplyDeleteI did not want to rush in with my thoughts on vulnerability because I feel so strongly that I must guard my heart. Yet, like you I want to feel deeply and be open. You are right to feel " vulnerable as a result of losing those barriers." My response to God is "wait a minute ... I can't lose the barriers and leave huge holes and to be attacked by the wolves!"
All I can say at the moment and maybe I will learn something later that God will reveal ... Fill those holes with God. Be fiercely loyal to God that when you are tempted that you guard fiercely. (easier said than done)
I had a situation that a person was not respecting my wishes to serve God. This person refused to hear my words. I realized to my surprise that I did not judge this person but in order to protect myself, I became silent so this person would go away. I hope my last words still ring in the ear. This was the only way to guard my heart. With a person I understand the desire to be nice but if what you said is heard on deaf ears, two times is enough. If it is a situation, I think is a bit easier to avoid.
Now please know that I am still thinking and wondering. So there could be more unveiling. I am a guarder! I am a blossoming shy person. Meaning I will always be a shy person and I am ok with that because the best gift I have gotten from being shy is that I am a great listener. I also can ask pretty good questions because I am a thinker. From the blossoming I have learned balance. So I think vulnerable must be kept in balance...... to guard and to be open.... is the rub!!!!
keep asking ... i am listening and asking with you...
Keeper, you're right. We do need to guard our hearts, that proverb exhorts us to "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of Life."
ReplyDeleteI guess it is about guarding our hearts in the right way. Because of deep pain i experienced as i was growing up, i built up thick barriers around my heart. In many ways I was emotionally detatched from others, i struggled to find intimacy in my freindships. In some ways it felt like i couldn't feel anymore, i struggled to trust, i was isolated. The real me had gone into hiding. I wanted to protect myself from ever feeling the depth of that sort of hurt ever again, but inside i was dying. Certainly not how God intended life to be lived... In His love and grace He destroyed those barriers around my heart, He set me free. Free to come into a place of deeper intimacy and life with Him and free to be the real me in my relationships, I'm still learning and growing. I am thinking that when God takes down wrong barriers we've put up around our lives, He puts Himself around us to encircle us in His Protection. He knows how vulnerable we become but doesn't leave us naked and exposed. (*that's a new thought and as i've read again it's really hit me!*)
I'm sure you're right, that as God fills those vulnerable parts I will become more whole. That the vulnerability that is part of being real in my relationships needs the wisdom of God. I can be totally vulnerable before God but maybe need to fiercely guard my heart among particular people and in certain situations where I know Life could be taken from me in a wrong sense.
But I also know that part of my healing and coming to a place of greater wholeness and freedom was being vulnerable, showing the real me to a more mature godly woman at church who I felt lead to to ask for help (that was hard!). I had to learn to pour out my heart totally to someone outside of my situation for the first time, it felt really risky. But it was through being real with another and finding not judgement and misunderstanding but acceptance and love that helped me to not just know but experience the truth that sets me free.
We are made for relationships and to be real and unafraid in them. I am growing and am becoming a more secure woman in who I have been made, in my value and worth, in who my heavenly Father says I am. Wow! It continues to be a life transforming journey of discovery.
I love how you describe yourself as a blossoming shy girl. I see a beautiful and delicate flower coming into bloom as it feels the gentle warmth of the sun. I love what you've blossomed in...the gift of listening, the abiliy to think deeply and lovingly question in order to see growth. My aunt once wrote on a card for my birthday the following which I've never forgotton. "May acceptance with joy be a hallmark of your life." It hasn't always been the case but I'm growing into that place.
I know what it is to be shy. I grew up as a shy girl. For me there came a point where i realised that i may have been shy and may now have shy tendancies but deep down i am not a shy person. God did not give me a spirit of timidity (2 Timothy 1:7). That label I had been given restricted me and stole my freedom in becoming the person i was made to be. I am becoming more confident and sure of who I am because i know whose i am. I have discovered that rather than being shy I am actually simply a quiet woman (Although I can still be shy sometimes and louder at others!). For me that means that I'm not a group person, I'm much more of a one to one sort of person and i really dislike being the center of attention. My shyness and discomfort often comes when I'm not comfortable, confident or sure of myself, when my vulnerability is exposed.
The adventure continues, the mystery unfolds... I'm blossoming because I know the real me is totally loved and accepted. I find security. My heart is at rest.
You have it, Lovely!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYour Heavenly Father and your Great Lover clothes you in a beautiful gown. He only wants you naked before Him. His Eyes hold you and you are safe. As you enter out into the world, you are protected and clothed and looking radient. Yes, indeed a goood new thought. I love it.
Sometimes we get stuck and don't think we have a right to search for someone to 'mother' us. I am proud of you that you found someone to bear up the life in you. Isn't wonderful to feel this 'mother womanly love'? You are loved and cherished.
I agree with you on being a quiet woman. We use different words to describe ourselves because of our journeys and yet it sounds like we are quite a like.
I have gotten a bit mad and defiant now days because I was told so often that shy was bad. I 'stick it to them' by using shy instead of quiet. You cannot change certain personality /character traits (like quietness). When you receive as a gift, you understand how valuable it is to you.
I describe myself as blossoming shy because I have finally understood how to give out and be quiet without making others uncomfortable and all the while being comfortable in my skin.
I am a hopefully a delightful paradox of quiet and loud. (lol)
I so understand why you do not label yourself as shy. I like it that you did not let spirit of timidity rule. I have 'pet words' or 'favorite words' maybe because I love words and I think our journeys help define words to us. Again I am proud of you for taking a stand and understanding the power of quiet.
I too am a one- on- one person. So much easier to enjoy people that way. Easier to see thier dreams......
I'm just loving our journeys ...... I enjoy you!
Yes! We need to accept and embrace ourselves as the women God has made us to be, we are reflecting His image through our lives. I agree it is interesting how our journeys define words for us, what a rich flavour there is to experience as we share our journeys...
ReplyDeleteI am so enjoying your flavour Keeper!
I see you posted the hymn "My Anchor Holds" some years ago. It caught my attention this morning because today is the 95th anniversary of the death of William Martin, the author. I trust that in your own life your anchor still firmly holds. God bless.
ReplyDeleteAh Robert! YES, my Anchor still holds more firmly than it did back in September 2005! When my life gets out of whack or I am feeling low, I turn to the Word of God to fill up on the Joy of the Lord. What an Anchor! As I have aged, all that satisfies is what is True and Solid. That can only be found in God and His Word...
ReplyDeleteThe old hymns ring so purely in my heart's ear. Thank you for stopping by. Your simple comment has boosted my weary blog days =)
Thanks for posting William Martin's fine gospel song. It caught my eye this morning because today, as I write, is the 96th anniversary of his death.)
ReplyDeleteIf you enjoy reading about our hymns and their authors, I invite you to check out my daily blog on the subject, Wordwise Hymns.