Rest in God's Heart

I slept, but my heart was awake. (Song of Solomon 5:2 RSV)

Our sleep will be peaceful when we rest in God's heart, abandoning ourselves to his providence and ever maintaining a sweet awareness of his mercy. When we do this, we are no longer seeking anything for ourselves, and our entire

being rests in him.

What we leave behind are our faltering and troubled rationalizations, our desires for ourselves, our impatience to gain a higher place. Then we find ourselves resting in the heart of God—for God is the one who has put us

there with his own hands, and he cradles us there in his arms. Can we be in danger where God places us—a place where we are as a little child who is rocked and hugged by its mother? Let us let go and give him the freedom to act. Let us rest on him and in him.

This confident, trusting rest, which quells every movement of our limited human reasoning, comes as we maintain true vigilance over our hearts. To place ourselves in God’s hands without leaning on any person or any thing—this is what it is to keep our hearts awake even as we sleep.

In this way love will always jealously keep its eyes open; it will always reach out to its Beloved. And when we do that we will not fall into the deadly sleep of our souls.

 

Francois Fenelon

Meditations on the Heart of God