Faith = Lavender for the Soul

Nature reveals so much about God. The more we learn, the more we understand that God is trustworthy. Did you know that Jewel Weed is a natural antidote for Poison Ivy? Did you also know that it is almost always found growing near Poison Ivy? I just learned this recently on a hike with my critique partners (waving to all you, Sharpies). I suspect our heavenly Father created a plant for every need we would have, and placed it close to where it would be needed. Jehovah Jireh is one of his names, after all...The Lord our Provider.

Essential Oils are the lifeblood of a plant. The Bible mentions the usage of oils in healing. Lavender is one of those plants our Creator provided. It has a wide range of uses. It is antibiotic, antiseptic, antidepressant, sedative, and a detoxifier which promotes healing and prevents scarring. I keep a bottle of Lavender essential oil in the kitchen in case of burns and in my "medicine" cabinet in the bathroom with my other essential oils.  Lavender is one of the few oils that can be used as a relaxant as well as a stimulant.

Lavender helps ease stress, relax muscles and calm the mind. It also stimulates thoughts and increases energy, giving that little push we may need to get up and go.

God thinks relaxation and rest are important. He instituted the Sabbath, commanding us to rest one day a week. He knew how we'd be...thinking we're so important we can't rest for a whole day. He also made celebrations throughout the year that included rest from work. And He promised peaceful sleep to His people.

Hebrews 4 encourages us to enter God's rest. Chapter 3 gives an account of Israel's sin of unbelief and how they were prohibited from entering the rest God offered them.

"Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day...For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end." ~Hebrews 3:12-14

Hebrews 3 and 4 demonstrate how unbelief was the sin that caused Israel to strive in the wilderness for 40 years rather than entering into the rest God had hoped to provide for them.

Do you ever strive and worry, causing yourself stress while God patiently holds the door open for you to enter the rest He already provided? 

(Maybe that's only me).

"'Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me.' Who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief."

~Hebrews 3:15-19

When we're not convinced of what we beleive, we disobey because we don't trust God to do what's right and best. We think we know better, whether we admit it or not. That is the cause of sin.

Hebrews 11 tells us that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.

So then faith is the key.

Faith is like Lavender for our soul. With it we can rest easy in God's hands entrusting all our worry to Him. And with it we have the motivation to actively obey His commands.