This morning I have been seeking the Lord a bit more than usual on a Sunday morning. I have had a rough attitude kind of morning this morning. It started off with a restless night of sleep. When I finally did get up around 5:30am I showered, dressed, and the unthinkable happened...I lost my glasses. I literally looked for 30 minutes looking for them. I was angry. I was mad. I was frustrated that I wanted to be at church early this morning to have extra time in the Word and then this happened. I was mad.
I needed to be in the Word this morning. I was looking foward to it. You see for the past few weeks, I have felt like the disciples in the boat on the Sea of Galilee.
Much like Jesus and the disciples who were swamped in the exhaustion that is ministry, I too needed to get on the boat and go to the other side and just breathe. Far from the world of trying to please everyone, I come in contact with. Far from the place of everyone telling you what would fix the broken. Far from the place where the future of a people feels like it lies upon my shoulders.
What about me? What about my feelings? What about what I want? What about ...fill in the blank. I want to get on the boat and rest.
So I opened my Bible and stepped on the boat of my quiet time and as I began to read about Jesus in the boat with the disciples I saw four words I had written in the margin of my Bible some years ago next to these two verses.
"35 As evening came, Jesus said to His disciples, "Let's cross to the other side of the lake." 36 He was already in the boat, so they..."
The four words were this. "Beside us" & "Before us". When Jesus invited the disciples to go rest on the boat He was coming alongside/beside them in friendship and saying "Hey guys, let's getaway for a bit and rest together." He was beside them. He was in their world and in their lives.
The second phrase was "Before Us." Verse 36 said "He was already in the boat." He was "Before them. And He is before us.
As we go about our day...remember He is Beside us and He is Before us. He is walking beside us in everything we go through and He is before us calling us on to further places. Today in the stormy & chaotic morning I am having, I am thankful that Jesus, You are Beside and Before me.
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