Monday 10 January 2011

Massah

I’ve been thinking about the desert place recently. A time of life where it feels less like skipping in a sunshiny field of daisies and more like…well a bit like this dream I once had where I was trying to climb a mountain made of pavlova whilst gail force winds blew all around me, a tasty snack it was, an easy climb it wasn’t.

In Psalm 95 the psalmist writes about ‘the day of Massah in the desert’ ‘Massah’ means testing and I think that’s where I’m at the moment. The psalm goes on to recall the faithlessness of the Israelites who failed to trust God’s purpose in that season, apparently forgetting completely about his impeccable track record of miracles. The psalm ends with an oath spoken by god ‘They will never enter my rest.’

It seems to me this is the only thing that could possibly follow a season of distrusting God; an inability to enter the heavenly rest he offers us.

Whilst its pretty easy to point a finger at the Israelites (who to be honest really did drop the ball a bit here – I mean I’d like to think that if I had seen God rain food out of the skies and blaze ahead nightly in a visible pillar of fire I wouldn’t forget it in a hurry..!)

Sadly, the truth is that God has provided for me in equally amazing and miraculous ways all through my life yet I still get my knickers in a twist daily about the future.

So I have to accept that this Psalm applies pretty clearly to me

And I really need to enter his rest…

…I mean really!

So I’ve been breathing deeply and trying to be content with where I am, as Babs Hughs writes in her slightly sanctimonious but very useful book ‘Disciplines of a Godly Woman’:

‘we naturally long for what we don’t have’ and ‘Godly contentment is independent of circumstances and conditions.’

After all, what better place is there to learn contentment than in the desert of Massah?





picture via fffound