I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.
I must admit; I am not a great patient. I don’t have time to be sick, and typically, I get cranky rather quickly when I am sick for more than half an hour. Well, it has been a month . . . need I say more?
Recently, it seemed appropriate to simply stay quiet and read, sketch, or play fetch with the dogs rather than say something I would later regret. I reached for one of my sketching notebooks and opened it. Instead of finding blank sketching paper inside, I found filled pages dating back almost six years. My spirit became quiet . . . it was no mistake I had pulled the wrong notebook from my shelves.
The first page was titled “God’s Indisputable Sovereignty, 10/22/2007.” I read and re-read the paper during a time when I needed to be reminded that God remains big and strong and capable of fitting back together the pieces of my shattered life. I had moved back to Texas with my three children, and we were all trying to figure out stuff.
Stuff is complicated . . .
- My one son had just entered middle school, which no one can figure out.
- My daughter was figuring out how to find her classes scattered all over a HUGE high school.
- And my youngest was struggling with disabilities and loads of other stuff.
For a few moments, being sick and tired slowed my pace long enough to reflect on God’s unchanging character.
Great, Big Words
God’s “immutable attributes”—big words, I know—help us understand what He is like.
For you and me, those big words mean a bunch of things:
- God is perfect in every way.
- He will never change.
- He can meet our every need.
- Nothing on earth can provide what God can provide.
- He can take the messes we make and put the pieces together in a way that is best and good and right (Romans 8:28; Ephesians 1:11).
And those words mean that He is without flaw, all-powerful, all-knowing, always faithful, always true to His word, and always available, regardless of what we bring to the table.
He will never change (Malachi 3:6).
I don’t know if you’re doing fine or in the dumps, if you’re doubting God or desiring to find Him, or if you’re just sick and tired of being sick and tired. While reading my notebook, I came upon the aged words of English pastor Charles Spurgeon:
Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound . . . there is a quietus for every grief . . . there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrows? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of grief and sorrow; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon . . . God.[ref]Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Immutability of God,” in Spurgeon Sermons, Volume 1: 1855, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons01.i.html, accessed Oct. 24, 2013.[/ref]
God Really Knows You
Job says, “He knows the way I take” (Job 23:10). The Psalms remind us that He knows “my heart” and “my thoughts” (Psalm 139:23) and that “His steadfast love endures forever” (100:5; 106:1; 107:1 ESV).
Don’t you think it’s time to take whatever you are sick and tired of and give it all to Him?
Let Me Hear from You
Six years from the day I put that notebook together, I can tell you that giving everything to God—heart, mind, soul, will, and strength—is the only way you will become well again. Let’s talk about this in our comments section today.
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