The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.
–George Mueller
You will never learn faith in comfortable surroundings. God gives us the promises in a quiet hour; God seals our covenants with great and gracious words, then He steps back and waits to see how much we believe; then He lets the tempter come, and the test seems to contradict all that He has spoken. It is then that faith wins its crown. That is the time to look up through the storm, and among the trembling, frightened seamen cry, “I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me.”
“Believe and trust; through stars and suns,
Through life and death, through soul and sense,
His wise, paternal purpose runs;
The darkness of His Providence
Is starlit with Divine intents.”
–Excerpt from Streams in the Desert Devotional, June 17th+
Disciplines of the Heart…Anne OrtlundTo rest in God permanently means to hand over each activity, each situation of your life, to Him and learn the habit of trusting Him to work for you. Theologian Kosuke Koyama says that in human affairs God moves at something like three miles an hour, the pace at which a person walks, not runs! Are you synchronized to your world, maybe even to your Christian world, but our of sync with God? Make the decision, by a conscious act of your will, that you will learn to rest in God both in your inner life and your outer life. Your heart will start listening to a different pulse deep within you, and with joy you'll begin to match your steps to that lovely, restful beat.