Living in God's Rest

 

The presence of God in our life is a wondrous gift that trumps any other blessing we could ever receive. God promises to be with us even until the end of this age. This age is called the Time of the Gentiles, or the Church Age. It began when Christ established the church while He lived on this earth. During this age, God calls us to seek His Kingdom more than we seek the distractions of the world, the flesh and the devil (Matthew 6:24). God requires total dedication and surrender (Luke 14:26), and His blessings are out of this world!

This does not negate the fact that we have a family, job, church and hobbies to participate in; but we do it all through the direction of God’s Spirit and for His glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). We follow the leading of God’s Spirit through the static of this world and the hectic pace of our life. He brings peace in the confusion and order from the chaos. He replaces our stress with His rest, if we will only surrender every facet of our life to Him. The first step in entering God’s rest is to spend time with Him (Mark 12:30).

Confusion drowns out the voice of God and causes us to feel frustrated, angry and to experience other negative emotions. However, walking in His presence moment by moment through the duties of our day, brings contentment and peace. God helps us to prioritze our time and activities. Every soul needs “down” time for our soul – our mind, will and emotions - to catch up, to chill out and to recover from the trauma of life. We need time for our spirit to center into Christ’s life within us (Psalm 46:10).

We do not have to be afraid of not measuring up, or of not getting all of our required work done or meeting all of the needs of all of the people who depend on us. If we live one moment at a time, Christ, who is our life and who lives within us (Colossians 3:3-4; Galatians 2:20), directs us to do what pleases Him. Like Mary, we can make the best choice for our day, and sit at Jesus feet within us, no matter where we are or what we are doing (Luke 10:42). As we praise Him and follow His Spirit, He will allow us to excell, to finish what is required of us, and to meet the needs of all the people He wants us to minister to.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, when You see our agitation rising inside, prompt us to discover the source of the negative emotions and to seek Your wisdom on how to deal with it. Nothing and no one can successfully come against us or overpower us, because You live within us. Remind us to be still and acknowledge that You are Lord over our life. Exhort us to rest in You while You work out the issues, which are distracting us from living in Your peace and rest. We trust You with our whole life, because we have faith in Your faithfulness.

Thought for the Day:

We still have hectic activities swirling all around us; however, as we walk in the Spirit, God gives us a quiet refuge, supernatural strength and His constant help in any difficulty we experience.

Rest for Our Soul

 

The presence of God in our life is a wondrous gift that trumps any other blessing we could ever receive. God promises to be with us even until the end of this age. This age is called the Time of the Gentiles, or the Church Age. It began when Christ established the church while He lived on this earth. During this age, God calls us to seek His Kingdom before, as well as more than we seek the distractions of the world, the flesh and the devil (Matthew 6:24). God requires total dedication and surrender (Luke 14:26).

This does not negate the fact that we have a family, job, church and hobbies to participate in; but we do it all through the direction of God’s Spirit and for His glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). We follow the leading of God’s Spirit through the noise and hectic pace of our life. He brings order from the chaos and peace in the confusion. He replaces our stress with His rest, if we will only surrender every facet of our life to Him. The first step in entering God’s rest is to spend time with Him (Mark 12:30).

Confusion drowns out the voice of God and causes us to feel frustrated, angry and to experience other negative emotions. However, walking in His presence moment by moment through the duties of our day, brings contentment and peace. God helps us to prioritze our time and activities. Every soul needs “down” time for our soul – our mind, will and emotions - to catch up, to chill out and to recover from the trauma of life. We need time for our spirit to center into Christ’s life within us (Psalm 46:10).

We do not have to be afraid of not measuring up, or of not getting all of our required work done or meeting all of the needs of all of the people who depend on us. If we live one moment at a time, Christ within us directs us to do what pleases Him. Like Mary, we can make the best choice for our day, and sit at Jesus feet within us, no matter where we are or what we are doing (Luke 10:42). As we praise Him and follow His Spirit, He will allow us to excell, to finish what is required of us and to meet the needs of all the people He wants us to minister to.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, when You see our agitation rising inside, prompt us to discover the source of the negative emotions and to seek Your wisdom on how to deal with it. Nothing and no one can come against us to overpower us,  because You live within us. Remind us to be still and to acknowledge that You are Lord over our life. Exhort us to rest in You while You work out the issues, which are distracting us from living in Your peace and rest. We trust You with our whole life, because we have faith in Your faithfulness.

Thought for the Day:

We still have hectic activities swirling all around us; however, as we walk in the Spirit, God gives us a quiet refuge, supernatural strength and His constant help in any difficulty we experience.

Let Your Soul Catch Up

The speaker at one of our Women’s conferences told the story about an American on safari. He had the natives marching almost day and night to reach his hunting destination in the African bush. On the fourth morning, the Bushmen refused to move. Instead, they relaxed in the shade of a tree and stayed there long into the morning. The American hunter was incredulous and exasperated. He grew angrier as the minutes ticked by on his watch, and he finally exploded. "This is an absolute waste of my valuable time. Can someone tell me what's going on here?" The translator looked at him with surprise and replied, "Well, they are just waiting for their soul to catch up with their body."

Can you relate to that? Are you so busy with a hectic schedule that it feels like you leave part of yourself behind? The thought of taking time to sit still, to enjoy a hobby, have a cup of tea, call your mom, take a college class, play with your children, read a book, visit with a friend, stroll in the park or on the beach seems like a distant dream. We feel guilty if we dare to take a moment to breathe, relax or take time to feed our soul.

What is our soul? It is our mind, will and emotions. Psychiatrists tell us that psychosomatic illnesses, a sickness with no known physical source, are very common in people with stress-filled lives. If we do not rest, our soul will actually invent physical symptoms to force us to shut down, so it can heal and regain its strength. We care for our body with regular meals. We care for our spirit with Bible study, prayer and corporate worship. Our soul needs care too.

If you place a rubber band in the sun, it will get hard and brittle, the elasticity gets rigid and inflexible. This same thing happens to our soul. With prolonged exposure to stress and abuse, we get hard, taut and easily upset or angered. We can no longer bend or compromise to accommodate another person. We are about to snap. We feel abused, taken for granted, overworked and overwhelmed. We act angry, resentful, bitter and unforgiving toward others. Eventually, we end up in a ball of nerves ready to bounce over the edge of sanity!

It is important to take time throughout the day to quiet our mind and to dedicate several hours every week for solitude, even if you cannot take them all at one time. You have heard the expression: “blowing off steam”. This helps us to get rid of strong feelings or energy, which are bottled up inside of us. This is basically what our soul needs to do several times during the day. Take a short break to unwind, to regain perspective and to breathe in oxygen to give your cells energy. Then go back to work.

Jesus gave us an example of how to allow our soul to catch up. He ministered to people for three years on a constant basis. Everyone who heard of Jesus came to Him to heal their sick and demon possessed friends and relatives. He spent hours on hillsides preaching to the crowds and providing them with food to eat (Mark 8:19). Yet, Jesus took time to withdraw by a private boat to a solitary place (Matthew 14:13; Mark 6:45-46). He went up on a mountainside by himself (Matthew 14:23). He slipped away to the wilderness (Luke 5:16). He even got up at daybreak and went to a quiet place (Luke 4:42; Mark 1:35).

He used this time to commune with our Father and to allow His soul to catch up. He also taught his disciples to do this same thing (Mark 6:31). If Jesus thought times of rest were important, shouldn’t we? It is not necessary to feel guilty when you sit still, take a nap, do deep breathing and stretching exercises, read a Christian novel, watch a Christian movie or sit with a friend to chat. It is also important to spend the Lord’s Day with fellow Believers in mental and spiritual renewal. Our soul needs time to refocus, to unwind, to find its balance and to center its focus on Jesus (Isaiah 26:3).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, remind us to take a clue from Mary when Martha worked herself into a tizzy because she did all the chores by herself, while Mary sat at Your feet. You told Martha that only one thing is worthy of our focus and that Mary discovered it; so You would not take that time with You away from her (Luke 10:43). Help us to sit at Your feet, to learn to live in the moment and to follow Your Spirit’s leading for each one of them.

Thought for the Day:

There is a time to “do”, but there is also a time to “be”. After all, that is why we are called human BE-ings.