SCREAM!

“I have stilled and quieted my soul;

like a weaned child with its mother,

like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

Psalm 131:2 (NIV) 

If you’ve heard it once – and nearly everyone has: you will never forget the shattering roar of a baby who wants his bed, bottle, or blanket.  You can’t think at the time, but afterwards you wonder how the baby’s own ears survived the decibel level.  Does he really think that feeling hungry or tired constitutes a dire emergency?

Embarrassingly, when you look back on the history of your relationship with God you might remember times when inside your head was just one big scream.  If you couldn’t see what God was doing, or if you had to wait for an answer to prayer, maybe feelings of frustration and abandonment just took over and you didn’t want to know what God was about unless he would give you what you wanted. 

At some point a baby starts to realise that his parents are still there even when they’re out of sight, and that a late meal or a missed nap isn’t the end of the world.  He becomes more interested in copying what adults are doing and, (with varying degrees of struggle), the boundary between the parents’ will and the child’s starts to get sorted out.

At some point a Christian stops screaming inside his or her head too. Maybe you get an inkling of what God might be doing or maybe your own priorities change – I can only say I have met Christians who are quite clearly in their “weaned” stage, but they tend to show who they are more by calmly listening to your confused thoughts than by explaining what they have learnt about peace and trust in God. 

Prayer

Father in heaven, as in Psalm 131, I will trust in you whether I know what you are doing or not, and I thank you for what I have seen of your peace.

Amen 

Study by Fiona Jones