October 7

“Discomfort and unrest in the spiritual life arise from strenuous but useless efforts to get up some satisfactory basis of confidence within ourselves.  The self looks for the ‘right kind of feelings,’ or the right amount of fervor or earnestness, or at least a sufficient degree of interest in spiritual matters.  Because none of these things are ever satisfactory (and never will be) it is impossible for the spiritual life to be anything but uncomfortable.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 9/23

Hannah then went on to point out that our salvation, from beginning to end, depends on Jesus Christ and that should be sufficient enough for peace to “reign supreme”.  If that’s the case, then it does seem we children of God really make “much ado about nothing”.  Why is it, then, I never feel like I quite measure up?  Was this Eve’s problem?  Is this why she felt she was missing out on something by not eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree?  And that by doing so she would be wiser?  This lack of contentment for who God made us to be is perhaps at the root of our unrest.  We think we are striving to be better--more of what God intended.  But God keeps leading me back to the fact that He created me and gives me all I need.  I need not strive for anything. Everything I need has already been placed within me. I need only tend to the business at hand, living each day as it comes, trusting Him with confidence.  This is the only confidence I need--in Him.

“Through him you have confidence in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”  1 Peter 1:21