These are the words that I shared last Sunday as I spoke about rest and words that came to me again as I got ready this morning. I sang them to the top of my lungs, smiling at the memories that popped up.
They are actually words that made up a song that I woke up to 18 years ago when I was still a student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Go Vols!
I was on a break between classes and decided to head back to my dorm room and enjoy a little nap. Man. I miss the days when I could take a nap anywhere. If I had 15 minutes and nothing to do, oh, your girl was gonna lie down.
Before I laid down on my futon, I looked up and said outloud, “Lord, would you sing over me as I sleep?” Then I drifted off, hoping that as the Resident Assistant for my floor, there would be no fires to put out while I rested.
About twenty minutes later, I didn’t wake up to an alarm, a call from a friend or a knock from one of the girl’s on my hall. I woke up to the sound of a voice singing over me, in the hazy place between dreams and being fully up and awake. I heard the words outloud as if someone turned on the boombox in the corner of my room.
“My thoughts, my plans, are endless…over you.”
God was singing over me, as I’m sure He always does but in that moment, He let me hear with my physical ears, a piece of the continual soundtrack declared over my life.
I can’t explain why He chose that moment. I can’t comprehend the mystery and supernatural physics of encounters with God.
But I’ll never forget it.
It sneaks up every now and then, that melody filling my heart and mind, reminding me that there is no limit to what God feels for me and thinks of me. And in turn, it reminds me that this is the same for you. There is no limit to the thoughts God has for you. The Bible says that we can’t even contain those words, we can’t hold the sum of them.
Do you see yourself that way? Sung over by the Lord? Thoughts and plans that are endless pouring over you? Solutions and answers and comfort and provision and peace waiting for you to access through Jesus Christ?
If you struggle with that, maybe it’s time for you to rest a bit. Sit down on you couch, linger a bit in your car, lay your head back on your office chair, lean in and snuggle that baby you may be nursing extra close. And then ask Him to sing over you, to let you hear the words He has been declaring since before you began.
What lies are dissipating? What truth is rising and becoming clear? What thoughts that are not your own are settling the hurting, cracking, crumbling places in your heart? Whether you hear it physically or not, my dear, He is singing into your atmosphere.
Rest in His love and savor the words you hear.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you. Psalm 139: 17 & 18 NIV
