Hey friend,
I hope after the holiday break you were able to rest and relax! I’m a mom so I’m not sure what this thing called “rest” is, haha! But really, it is important that we all rest to recharge our bodies and minds.
We may confuse the word “rest” when we’re reading it in scripture. When God is talking about rest, he isn’t talking about taking a nap or watching something on Netflix to wind down. He is asking you to find rest in him — find your peace in him. When life seems crazy and you’re just ready to throw in the towel — rest. When people are saying things untrue about you and it begins to fog up your mind — rest. When you’ve been praying about that situation that doesn’t seem like God wants to change — rest. When you’re in his presence, when you are finding rest and refuge in God, you are able to just lean back and rest in his arms. Open up your Bible, let God speak to you. Knowing that the Maker of all, will take care of it all. No need for justification, fighting, or worrying. Find your rest in him.
Let’s look at resting from a different perspective for a minute. God is to be our resting place, but does God feel like he can rest upon you? This is important to ask yourself because if you’re never at peace with anyone or anything in life, the answer is no. He cannot find rest in you. We are to be a place of rest for the Lord. Yes, he wants us to come to him and give him all our worries, fears, etc. but we are to be a place of rest for him. If you’re constantly in battles that you’ve created, he is not going to find rest in you. If that was hard for you to understand, ask yourself this, do people find rest in you? Or are you always at war with others?
We are to be a fresh incense, a sweet fragrance to God. Our prayers to him are to be refreshing. We are called to do hard things and pray the hard prayers.
Let me give you an example:
I know that is a hard thing to do: pray for someone that is set out to hurt you, but it’s the godly thing to do. And honestly, it’s so refreshing. When you do that, God is happy. Blessing others can be a blessing for you as well. It can create peace and rest in you which leads to God finding rest in you!
When we think about rest, we need to also think about the word restoration. When we do the things that bring rest to our spirits and bodies, that brings us to restoration. That means doing the things we don’t want to do and having the convicting conversations we don’t want to hear or have.
Restoration means: the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition.
If you feel like you’ve been at a place of unrest, seek God. God is who brings our minds, bodies, families, and relationships to restoration. He brings us back to Him. Without rest in our minds, spirit, and bodies — we are a prisoner to all that fills it. So when it’s all filled with evil and junk of this world, you cannot be a resting place for the lord. You begin to reek to him and others that come around you. It becomes obvious to everyone that you're not at rest when your actions don't line up with God, when your relationships are falling apart, and you feel like people and the whole world is constantly after you -- it's more than likely you and your lack of obedience to God. All that is within you will eventually ooze out of you and reveal what consumes you.
He is more than able and willing to bring you there, but are you willing to lay down all that consumes you? Are you willing to seek to be a place of rest for the lord?
Be blessed,
Brittany