Needing Rest is Strength
Are you good at resting?
Verse of the Day
‘Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat.’
Today’s Devotional
There are many things we can learn from this one story. I feel that it is particularly important to study the life of Jesus because He is God with human skin. Jesus shows us how the human life COULD look.
In the verse right before this one, we see that ‘The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught.’ It is so cool to me that Jesus sent them out to do ministry even while He was still on the earth. And when they returned to Him, they told Him all about it. Jesus cares about the details of our lives. But the most important part of this is that we all need to return to Jesus after we’ve been out doing His work. Just like your gas tank needs to be filled up, so does your soul. We must recognize the need to be FILLED by spending time with Jesus.
Next, notice that Jesus calls them away to a quiet place. There is value in seeking quietness. We are told to “Be still and know” that God is God and we are not god. How can we do that amidst all the noise of this world? We must seek out the quiet. And I will be the first to admit that this can be scary and uncomfortable. We need to do it anyway.
Not only did Jesus call them away for quiet, He also says that they need to rest. For awhile. Jesus recognizes that the work is tiring. Life can be exhausting. It is actually a kindness of God that rest is among the original commandments. Here, in today’s story, Jesus is reminding us of our need to rest.
However, we need to notice that the busyness of life with others can get in the way of taking care of our own needs. Notice that Jesus and the apostles were having trouble even getting in a meal. Sometimes, we must take active steps to replenish ourselves so that we are prepared for the next assignment. Otherwise we will be subject to burnout, apathy, fatigue, or possibly some kind of breakdown or crisis.
Lastly, if we keep reading, we will see that Jesus and the apostles in this story did not get the restful retreat they were seeking. They left on a boat heading for a quiet place. But…the masses got excited and ran ahead of them and were waiting when they landed. That’s when Jesus fed the five thousand men (plus women and children). Here we learn that withdrawing to rest doesn’t always work out the way we hope it will. And that’s ok. That doesn’t mean we give up on resting. We just recognize that for that moment, God’s plan was different. We try again to make time for quietness and rest.
For me, the moral of this story is that the strongest people are the ones who recognize their own limitations. There is strength in knowing the value and purpose of Godly rest. It is commanded for our good. The world may send us messages that make us feel guilty for resting. That’s ok. We can choose not to listen to those messages. God calls us to rest. The truly strong know that they cannot keep going without it.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How do you need to return to Jesus?
How can you set aside a time for quietness?
How can you make space in your life for rest? (Sleeping at night does not count, by the way.)
How does your life feel too busy for you to set aside time to rest?
How can you share your own limitations with God today and allow Him to come into your life to fill you up?