Are You Like the Tossing Sea?

But the wicked are like the tossing sea,
which cannot rest,
whose waves cast up mire and mud.

Isaiah 57:20

Do you ever feel like the “tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud”? I do, though I wish it weren’t true. I’ve been a Christian for over fifty years. In that time, I’ve experienced God’s peace time and again. I remember well how, in times of worry, God has calmed my soul. Yet there are still times, far too many, when I feel like the restless sea. Late at night, I can’t sleep as my mind “casts up mire and mud.” Anxiety can be my unwelcome but familiar companion, along with fear and doubt.

In these times of agitation, I have not rejected God in any intentional or lasting way. But, in a sense, I have rejected him. I’ve turned my back on his promises. I’ve closed my heart to his Spirit. I’ve decided to rely upon myself and my ingenuity rather than upon the only one who is truly and fully reliable. I’ve chosen to do that which I know to be sin. It’s no wonder that when I back away from God, I lose touch with his peace.

Yet God, in his mercy, doesn’t leave me in my restlessness. He finds ways to remind me of his presence. When I turn to him in desperation, he meets me… sometimes in that very moment, sometimes later. I realize that my life is never what it ought to be except when I rely fully on the Lord. As St. Augustine wrote in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

When do you feel like the restless sea?

What helps you to experience God’s peace, especially in tumultuous times?

Do you need God’s gift of peace right now? If so, will you ask him for it?

PRAYER:

Gracious God, you know how easy it is for me to feel like the restless sea. In times of uncertainty, my heart can cast up mire and mud… the mire of doubt, the mud of sin. Forgive me, gracious Lord, for all the times I fail to trust you.

May I never reject you, Lord, even in small ways. Help me, by your Spirit, to trust you each and every day, to walk with you, to put my life in your strong and capable hands. May my heart find rest in you, so that I might live each day boldly, free from worry and doubt. Amen.

Explore more at the Theology of Work Project online commentary: Christ the Preacher of Peace