Rest
Are you grateful for the rest that God gives?
Verse of the Day
‘The Lord replied, “I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.”’
Today’s Devotional
If there is one answer that people seem to give when you casually ask, “How are you doing?”, it is often the same.
“Busy.”
Why are we so proud of the fact that we are busy?
Jesus was never busy or in a hurry. He was never stressed. And it is very easy to believe that this is because He is God. But if Jesus was also fully man, then why do we brush off His practices and His lifestyle as unattainable? One of the more meaningful statements I have heard recently is that “Jesus came to earth not only to save us but also to show us how to be human.”
At one point in His ministry, it does appear that maybe Jesus and the disciples were, in fact, busy. But look at Jesus’ answer to that problem. ‘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.’ (Mark 6:31)
Jesus did not delegate or recruit more disciples or tell the people to go home. His answer was to retreat from the crowds to a quiet place. Jesus knew that the answer to being busy was found in Isaiah 30:15. “This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength.”
Return to the Father. Rest. Quietness. Confidence in God.
Are we good at following this instruction?
The answer to that question is found in the last sentence of Isaiah 30:15. Read it again, this time in its entirety. “This is what the Sovereign Lord , the Holy One of Israel, says: “Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength. But you would have none of it.”
This message is repeated in Jeremiah 6:16. “This is what the Lord says: “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!’”
Every single day, each one of us is at a crossroads. Each day that we wake up, we have a choice to choose God’s path or our own. So what is the old, godly way? The verse in Jeremiah 6:16 tells us to ask. How often are we asking the Holy Spirit to show us the path He has for us? For some reason, our default is to live a life of hurry and striving and busyness instead of asking God for His path.
But God is offering us rest. Not a nap or a day of lounging around. True, renewing, invigorating, life-giving rest. And I am so very grateful for God’s invitation to step back from the world and rest in Him.
‘So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world.’ (Hebrews 4:9-10)
‘He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.’ (Psalms 23:2)
What I have noticed recently is the invitational nature of God’s rest. Notice that the verse above from Hebrews says that this rest is waiting for us. And in Psalms 23, God “lets” me rest, perhaps only if I will allow it.
We are in the midst of one of the busiest times of year. But what if we follow the example of Jesus and step away from our phones and calendars and commitments for some time each day to simply rest in the presence of the Father? To breathe. To know that God is in control. To be reminded how extravagantly we are loved.
Today I am grateful for God’s invitation to rest in Him. I am also grateful for the experiences I have had of not accepting that invitation. Because now I know that my way doesn’t work. The busier I allow myself to be, and the more I try to rest in my own ways, the more exhausted I become. I had a day this week when my internal spirit was stressed and tightly wound. When I noticed it, I stopped and said to myself, “No! This is not who God made me to be or how He made me to function. I refuse to give in to this feeling of stress. God will help me with this day, and that’s all I need to focus on.” In that moment of recognition and internal rebuke, I entered into God’s rest. Even if only for a moment.
We can choose to be grateful for God’s invitation to rest in Him even if we have yet to accept this invitation. We can be grateful that we are invited to ask for help to know what the old, godly path is that will lead us to rest. I am so grateful that God does not require or expect me to already know! We are forgiven, clean, holy, righteous, chosen, loved and pursued by the God of Heaven. Let’s rest in that truth today. Let’s choose to be grateful for the rest we are being offered. And let’s be brave enough to ask for help to follow Jesus into a place of rest.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
Ask the Holy Spirit what the old, godly path is for you. Write down what comes to your mind.
How can you “go off by yourself to a quiet place and rest awhile”? What would that look like? How can you follow the example of Jesus in this way?
Are you grateful for the rest that God is inviting you into? If so, write a prayer of gratitude to God for the rest He is offering.