In the midst of an oracle of judgment against Judah, God reveals where true security comes from: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength…” (Isaiah 30:15). But, Judah refuses to listen and ends up relying on military armaments (human strength), rather than on God (Divine strength). Needless to say, it doesn’t go well for Judah as the Southern Kingdom is eventually conquered and exiled to Babylon in 586 B.C. Over this past year, I’ve really come to value these four promises: repentance, rest, quietness and trust. Collectively, they encompass walking humbly before God. I call them promises because I believe that God grants them to me as gifts. But, what seems to consistently get in the way of me receiving these blessings is my fear and my pride.

The more I press into God’s grace and love, the more I am confronted with the reality that the only way to walk in the fullness of God’s grace and love is to walk humbly before Him. This means walking yielded to the Holy Spirit everyday, all day. But, I am proud and fearful. Proud in the sense that I want to prove to God that I can be faithful and that I can love Him unconditionally. Fearful in the sense that I am afraid of facing the hard truth that I’m not perfect and that even on my best day I still sin. What trips me up is that I’ve rationalized, even super spiritualized these pursuits thinking that I’m just trying to please God. So, I tell myself that I am capable of unconditional love and that I’m not so bad, that if I try hard enough I can have a perfect day. Who am I kidding?

But, in the midst of my struggle, the grace and love of God rises within me and reminds me that I don’t have to prove anything to God. He loves me, no matter what. What I’ve learned and am continually learning is that in order to embrace more of God’s grace, I need to embrace more of my brokenness. It is because I am imperfect that I receive God’s grace. So, letting God love on me means accepting myself and loving myself as God loves me, unconditionally. When I do this I will stop thinking I have to prove myself and I will slowly begin to accept myself just as I am. And why shouldn’t I, God does. He accepts me just as I am. That is an amazing truth. Even more, He blesses me with repentance, rest, quietness and trust. God’s desire to be in relationship with me is so much greater than mine. His desire to form Christ in me far surpasses my own. I need to remember that next time I feel like I need to be doing for God, rather than being with God.

That’s what repentance, rest, quietness and trust describe: being with God. When I am just being with God, I will be walking humbling before Him because I understand that He loves spending time with me, not because of what I can or can’t do, but because I am His beloved child. In essence, this means doing, in order to be. We turn away from temptation and sin, in order to draw near to Him (repentance). We take a break from our busyness and striving, in order to rest in His presence (rest). We tune out the noise of the world, in order to listen to His Words of grace towards us (quietness). We confess our unbelief and mistrust, in order to receive faith and healing (trust). God knows what we need in order to have a deep and vibrant relationship with Him, but we need to choose to receive His gifts of repentance, rest, quietness and trust. Help us Holy Spirit to receive more of God’s gifts and blessings into our hearts and lives. In Jesus Name, Amen.