My topic you already know is the simplified life, a simplified life.

I've tried to emphasize God's Providence, his mysterious and unpredictable and unaccountable

workings.

The song that we've just heard is a reminder of that.

God does not discuss things with us.

He does not define things for us.

He doesn't tell us that he's going to give us a blueprint

of everything that's going to happen.

He simply gives us the infragable promise. Everything that happens

fits into a pattern for good. So we need not know how it fits, we need to remember that it fits.

And we thought last night about Mary how she surrendered

gladly and unreservedly to the undefined,

faithfully obedient and active in everything

that was needed for the fulfillment of her duties,

the ordinary duties of the moment, and submissive, humble, and self-forgetting

in everything else.

She disengaged herself from her feelings, which is something that most of us have to do very often when it comes to obedience to God.

We obey not because we feel good about it, not because we're in the mood to obey, but because

we want, honestly, to be followers of Jesus Christ. So how shall we think about this simplified life?

Crucial passage, familiar verses probably to many of you, Matthew 11, 28 to 30, come to me all you who are

weary and burdened and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your

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