It has been almost 4 months since I have written a newsletter for WOW. I could probably come up with several good excuses for my lack of contact but no excuse will ever rival the truth. I am trying to ditch my victim-laden, ‘excuse mentality’ these days so I will just get it out there and tell you the truth: I needed a rest.
There! I said it. The dreaded 4-letter word we all hate to love. R-E-S-T. Rest.
We hate even using the word ‘rest’ because it makes us feel guilty and we never seem to get enough of it. Yet we love thinking of rest because we desire to stop and breath deeply so we can hear the rhythm of our own heart…and the heart of God.
There is only one thing wrong with rest: nothing gets done! I’ve heard woman after woman (including myself) say, “I feel so guilty when I rest. If I am not doing something I feel so useless.” We must recognize that guilt is satan’s tactic to keep us from finding our secret place alone with God. The evil one knows that God is our source of rejuvenation, revitalization and renewal and busyness is one of his main schemes to keep us from hearing the voice of God. Productivity and constant activity seems to feed our insatiable appetite to accomplish and succeed. But like a hamster on a wheel, where do we think we are running?
Listen to this quote by Charles Swindoll:
“Religion says, work more, try harder. Do this. Don’t do that. Give until you have no more. God isn’t yet pleased with you. Push, push, harder, longer. Jesus looked into the heart of exhausted, over-burdened, anxious and stressed-out people and offered a better way.”
Our love-hate relationship with rest is as old as time itself and this is why Jesus had to tell his disciples (and us!) to ‘come away with him by yourself to a quiet place and get some rest.” (Mk 6:31) In Mt 11:28, Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” Jesus commands us to rest because He always has our best interest at heart. Religion says ‘work, work - push, push’. Relationship says ‘Rest…and then we’ll see what we can get done together.’
A driven lifestyle is not of God. Our go-go-go attitude may be the most outward sign we exhibit that tells the world, “I am in control. God is not.” Ouch! When we rest and take one hour to be renewed in the Lord during the day, we demonstrate that God can empower us to be more effective in 23 hours of spirit-filled service than the 24 hours the world has without Him. When we take one day out of our month as a spiritual day of rest, prayer and meditation, we tell the world we can do more in 29 days than they can do in 30 because we are energized and made alive in Christ. Spending time in rest and in His presence does not diminish our productivity but rather resting in God becomes the well-spring from which flows a spirit-empowered life full of fruitfullness. Therefore, I beg to argue the statement that ‘nothing gets done when we rest in Christ’.
I’m working on this ‘resting thing’ right along with you. I do not want my time with God to be just another thing I cross off my to-do list. Instead, I desire for rest to be the only way I can accomplish anything on my list! Dangerous prayer? Yep!
It took me a bit longer than I thought to write this devotional. I could have been done a bit quicker if not for the nap I took in the middle of my writing. Maybe I am learning after all!
I pray you give yourself permission to rest.
Resting in Him, Kathy
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