My heart is wandering in lonely exile earnestly searching for a way home. We all hunger for quiet rest in this “waste howling wilderness.” After we were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, we were refugees, aimlessly searching for a place of peace – aching for shalom. We read in Deuteronomy 32:9-10 “For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.” The Lord who searches for us is the rest of his people, the home of the heart, and the sanctuary for the refugee. God finding his people is the end of the exile of our hearts. He welcomes us home beside the green pastures and the quiet waters.
Happiness, or heart satisfaction, is like a wet bar of soap. The tighter you squeeze the soap the more it slips through your fingers. Rest of heart and true joy are not found by searching for them directly nor by making them your solitary focus. They are by-products of finding something, actually someone, else. More accurately, that Someone finding you!
We, of all God’s creatures, were made in the image and likeness of God. God is our natural environment – our home – the place where we thrive and find rest! Communion with God is our shalom. We were created to know and love God; to enjoy his presence, wisdom, blessing, and favor. Our hearts belong to him by virtue of creation. But our hearts will not find their rest in him except by virtue of redemption. Paul speaking in Athens said, “they (all mankind) should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17:27-28). We were made to know God and dwell with him. He is our home, our peace, and our rest.
In our search for heart rest and soul satisfaction, many aim horizontally and ask created things to bring them contentment. ‘My spouse will make me happy.’ ‘My kids will fulfill my dreams.’ ‘Success will give my heart rest.’ We expect earthly things to do what only God can do; namely, to give true satisfaction of heart. Relationships, good times, fame, riches, even family, and personal accomplishments can only give a temporary sense of peace. These blessings are only a few of the pleasures God gives. True rest is found not in the gifts alone, but in the giver.
Yet, all of creation’s good gifts point to the giver as the true source of rest and peace. “God is the peace that you are looking for… If you seek God, rest in his presence and grace, and put your heart in his most capable hands, he will satisfy your heart as nothing else can” (Paul David Tripp).
In every dessert line blessed with Scotch-a-Roos, my personal favorite, I am sorely tempted to take the whole plate instead of grabbing only one treat! In our search for soul satisfaction and peace of heart we are not to be content merely with the gifts that God can give and to seek our shalom among earthly things, we are to take the whole plate! We are to aim for God and have all these other things thrown in. Isn’t that what Jesus told us? “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) ‘There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God.’ Won’t you join him there? Won’t you enter into that rest?