In his book, Doing the Truth in Love, Michael J. Himes writes: “at the center of our being is an endlessly nagging sense of, ‘Yes, yes, yes, but more.’” Likewise, St. Augustine famously wrote, at the beginning of his Confessions: “You made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” We can be a restless people, especially when it comes to our relationship with God. We want more.
As it turns out, this restlessness is a gift. It’s all the nagging, confusing, irritating work of the Spirit. God made us to be restless, made us to be wondering and discontented and wandering about our spiritual lives, because God knew this restlessness would ultimately lead us right back to him. God knew that, with the help of the Spirit, we wouldn’t stop, wouldn’t accept the easy way of just meeting obligations and skimming by on the bare minimum of spiritual living. God knew that contentment can be the death of spiritual growth. So God made us restless.
Ask yourself in silence: Are you restless for God? What is the “more” you want right now?
10 comments On Today’s Word: Restless
thank you, Steve…I printed this out to put next to my computer…I need to “dwell” on this for awhile! peace and good
I think of it as a yearning for God: to know Him better, love Him more, and to better respond with action. In the book “Mother Angelica’s Answers, Not Promises”, I read many years ago: “When we experience that faint thirst that makes us aware there’s a vacuum inside me, something’s missing, we are being called. The emptiness is not just part of being human, but is permitted for a special purpose. It is God calling us to Him, letting us know that as hard and fast as we look, we will never again be satisfied until we know and believe in Him. It is God working through the people around us and in everything we see and hear and read.”
Thanks again for a wonderful series!
Judy
This series is wonderful, Steve. These words are like spiritual sparks, fueling my spirit to search more deeply. Restless . . . yearning . . . aching to behold . . . it is so true; we search and search, question and doubt . . . . we want the satisfaction and surety of Faith, of “knowing”, of truly believing, and just when we think we have found Him, we are reaching for more. We search for Him until our last breath, I think, because only then will our restlessness be satisfied.
Thank you Judy, for the quote from Mother Angelica’s book. I will look for that, it sounds inspiring.
Prayers as always,.
Kathleen
I am now seeing the light, Steve.
All the words you have given us so far, are intertwined, and inseparable. They are all little keys opening up my inner self to be more in communion with God. These words have quietened somewhat, my fickle and restless heart :- to be still, and KNOW that God is here, esp. when I do all that turns me to God; that I’m given another chance with every fresh morning, and that all I need ask for is not to see, not to know, but simply to be ‘used as his blind instrument’!
What you have given us, is awesomely immeasurable!
Grateful thanks fo all these blessings, Steve.
Anthony.
Thank you, Anthony, for saying this so beautifully. This is God at work in both you and me…
Thanks, Kathleen. Beautifully put, as always.
Thanks for sharing this, Judy. Excellent thoughts from both you and Mother Angelica!
Thanks, Pat. Hope your “dwelling time” was peaceful and constructive!
Thanks for reminding me that God’s love is a moving force and a daily process.
Thank you, Mary.