"ONE LETTER!"

Psalms 37:7          (KJV)
"Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass."

I awoke one morning to a "troubled spirit".  I prayed to my GOD JEHOVAH to give me a direction out of the funk I was in and to direct me in the way HE desired me to go. In a few minutes, my mind went to "Rest in The Lord"!   When I got out of bed, I went to the Holy Bible for answers!  Psalms 37:7 is where I was directed.  I started "meditating" the phrase "Rest in The Lord" and initially I was not getting anywhere with "Rest in The Lord".  Then, all of the sudden, I realized the scripture says to "rest IN the LORD", not to "rest ON the LORD"!  The difference of ONE LETTER ("I" vs "O") can make a huge difference in a sentence or proclamation.

I begin to think about dropping some food ON a shirt.  You can clean a shirt and get the spilled food off the shirt.  But if your shirt has a color IN it, a different color thread, all the trips through the washing machine will not remove the color.  When you have the LORD "IN" you, the fabric of your life is changed.  You are never the same.

Which brings us to the next part of the verse.  "Wait patiently for HIM"!  One of THE most difficult thing for me to learn is my timing is not GOD's timing.  My nature, the natural man, has a built-in need for moving at a pace unsustainable to life.  In a farmers terms, I want to plant a garden on Monday, water it for a week, and reap the harvest on Friday!  But a bountiful harvest requires time for the plants to strengthen and mature into the fruit we desire from it.

GOD is the Master Gardener in the garden of life.  HE knows when we need to have weeds pulled from around HIS plants, and water applied to HIS plants, and fertilizer applied to HIS plants!  HE loves us so much that HE will not allow HIS fruit to ripen too quickly, or ripen too much, or our plants to not be pruned (John 15:1-6).  John 15:5 says "I (JESUS) am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth IN me (JESUS), and I IN him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me (JESUS) ye can do nothing."

To "REST IN THE LORD" is to be a part of HIM, not to have HIM "ON" you as a stain on a shirt.  Just as a branch must be a engrafted "IN" a vine, we must be a living part of JESUS.  Something that is spilled onto JESUS will not be transformed by a knowledge of HIM. One has to be engrafted into HIM and let your life come from HIM.  One letter makes a world of difference!