Resting in God: Past, Present, and Future
by Pastor Matt Pierson
“Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.”
Psalm 116:7
At TVC’s recent 25th anniversary celebration, we shared prayers of thanksgiving for the past 25 years of our church, prayers of dependence on God for today, and prayers of trust for God’s guidance and provision for the coming 25 years. I’ve been reflecting on the three ‘tenses,’ those three ways we experience life, and how we might experience rest and trust in God through all three.
Daily, all of us arrive at the intersection of past, present, and future. What’s curious is that we continue to arrive at that intersection. And every day, our arrival is new. The “now” we experience today was yesterday’s tomorrow; the previous day is now the past.
I remember as a child visiting the ‘Four Corners’ monument, the point out west where the four states of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah converge; one can literally stand in all four states at the same time. We can’t do this with time, can we? God, in His infinite mercy, has ordained our time on earth to be experienced linearly. Our lives are carried along in a current of “now.” We use terms like ‘living in the past,’ or ‘living in the future,’ but what we speak of is really remembering and imagining—remembering or reliving events that have happened, and imagining or “pre-living” moments that have yet to happen. In terms of actual living, well, that is only found in the present moment.
The Bible recognizes our creatureliness—our limits—the fact that we do experience time on a moment-by-moment, daily basis, and encourages us to trust God’s provision for all of our moments.
In Exodus, God daily provided manna, literally “bread from heaven,” as food for the Israelites while they wandered in the wilderness. The manna was found fresh and new every morning. The Israelites were instructed to gather only what they needed for that day. Any more that they gathered or was left over would be rotten and filled with worms by the next day—except for the Sabbath; they gathered twice as much as they needed the day before the Sabbath, and that manna would stay fresh, so they didn’t need to gather on the Sabbath and could devote it to the Lord.
This daily rhythm of dependence, of resting and returning, acknowledging our need for the Father, counteracts the autonomy sought by Adam and Eve in the garden, the desire to declare their (and our) independence.
When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He used the phrase, “Give us this day our daily bread.” What a beautiful picture that is—the true Bread of Life, who would give His body to be broken for us and give His blood to be shed for us, teaching us to return to the Father daily for nourishment and sustenance. This daily rhythm of dependence, of resting and returning, acknowledging our need for the Father, counteracts the autonomy sought by Adam and Eve in the garden, the desire to declare their (and our) independence. It takes the teeth out of our anger (thinking that God has gotten things wrong in the past) and lessens our anxiety (thinking that God will get things wrong in the future).
I would love to encourage all of us to embrace this sacred “now,” where our past, present, and future intersect each day.
“Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.”
C.S. Lewis
With confidence, we can rest in God’s faithful care of the past moments of our lives, knowing that He will redeem all of them for our good and His glory, and that one day we will fully know and understand how, all along, He was working together all things for good, even the hardest things. As C.S. Lewis said in The Great Divorce, “Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.”
With confidence, we can trust a loving Father to provide for our present moment, bringing us our daily bread with every sunrise that invites our rejoicing in this day that the Lord has made; which reminds us that all things were created through Christ and for Christ; that He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together, and that His mercies are new every morning.
And we can, with joy and confidence, trust that every future moment, all that lies ahead of us this day, and every day thereafter, all exist within the context of our loving and sovereign God, who holds all our times in His hand.
—Pastor Matt
Some Scriptures to Meditate on:
“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Psalm 118:24
“Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever!”
Psalm 28:9
“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
Psalm 90:1-2
“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.”
Psalm 62:5-8
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose… For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 28:38-39
