Our Resting Way
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am
gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke
is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Our bodies, our minds and souls are not rested. We are
continually worrying about something, be it work, family, finances, or other.
Our minds spin out of our control and at night we toss and turn until
exhaustion takes over. How and when do we rest?
It is not the Lord that burdens us. He wants us to be
rested and content, but we are not. This is not the way God wants us to live.
He has promised to provide our needs. He has given us eternal life with Him and
yet we can’t seem to let go of earthly worries.
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late
to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. (Psalm
127:2)
This world requires so
much. Working to support our families takes up the largest percentage of our waking
time and is sometimes strenuous, unpleasant, unsatisfying and worrisome. It is
understandable that we would have difficulty resting in the Lord.
Other anxieties take up
the rest of our time i.e. what to eat or wear, where to go, what to say, how to
act, how to pay the bills, and how to get everything done in the allotted time
while being kind and thoughtful Christians. Obviously, there is no time for
rest in our lives. But we must take the time.
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the
everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or
grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and
to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be
weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)
We’ve got it backward. We
believe we need to work more and rest less, but God says the opposite is true. We
must have faith that God will take care of our lives. If our faith doesn’t
reach the point of truly trusting enough to sit down and let God do what He has
promised, we will not allow ourselves to rest.
We are micro-managers of
God. Instead of asking for His help and guidance and then resting in the
knowledge that He will give them to us, we jump in and take over. This is a
very worldly attitude and doe not show non-believers the great power of our
Lord.
God knows that we are
weak. He knows that we will grow tired and that we need rest to renew our
strength. He knows the world is a strenuous place to be. But instead of asking
us to work harder, He asks us to rest and promises that He will renew our strength
so that we can accomplish all that needs to be accomplished.
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for
man, not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27)
We all know that God
rested on the seventh day and that under the old covenant He required that the
seventh day be kept holy and people rest from their labor. He did this for
their health. This was not an arbitrary rule that had no reason. God’s Old Testament
law and the New Testament covenant instructions about how to live a Godly life
are for our good. They are for our health and well-being. God knows what is
best for us.
Whether we rest on the
seventh day or the seventh hour or the seventh minute, it makes no difference.
God wants us to rest and tells us the we will accomplish more in a shorter
amount of time if we follow His guidance.
It is not God who makes
us run, it is we ourselves who worry and believe we must work harder, longer,
and keep on the go. God says that in quietness and trust will be our strength.
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In
returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your
strength.” But you were unwilling, (Isaiah 30:15)
We are unwilling, or we
are unable to trust that everything that must be done will be done because God
has promised it. We cannot blame God for making our lives difficult when we are
too stubborn to have faith in His word.
Today is a good time for
us to rest in the Lord, to take time to breathe and to put worry aside. We can
sit for a moment and reflect on God’s goodness to us. If what we are working on
is collapsing around us, perhaps a step back and some rest and contemplation of
what God wants us to do would be a good thing.
Let us take moments each
day to sit down physically, emotionally and spiritually, and have a quiet
conversation with our loving Father. Let us make sure that we are following the
path He has laid out for us and incorporating the rest that He has told us will
make us stronger. When we walk, we can walk slower, breath deeper, and relax
our muscles. There are many ways to rest. Find your resting way and rest in the
Lord.
And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to
a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they
had no leisure even to eat. (Mark 6:31)
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