February 17, 2020

It’s Okay to Rest

But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!”

– 1 Kings 19:5b

Sometimes we just need to rest. We’re so busy doing life, serving the LORD, taking care of the endless demands of others, that we find ourselves empty, frustrated, angry.

Have you been there? Are you there now? It seems as though this season will never end. We can’t see God so we try harder, pray longer, serve better. And, yet, all it seems to do is increase both our anxiety and our fatigue.

God invites us to rest. The world may try to insist that we remain on the treadmill but God says we can take a break. God says we can come to Him for nourishment and strength.

Elijah had done everything God asked of him. He’d stood firm in his faith. He’d prayed for rain and it came. Elijah was God’s servant and because he obeyed, others saw God’s mighty power.

And then, after it was all over, Jezebel vows to have Elijah killed and he just fell apart. He was done. He wanted to die. Aren’t we like that sometimes? We’ve stood strong and then that one more thing, that one more comment, that one more demand sends us over the edge and we are done.

Take a moment. Sleep. Eat. Pray. Meditate on God’s Word. You don’t have to be a superhero, no matter what the world tells you. You can say no to the endless demands. You can retreat into the safety of God’s arms.

God created us to do amazing things. But, as our Creator, God knows just how fragile and frail we really are. Today if you find yourself overwhelmed, turn toward God. He is your strength and your life source. With Him you will find nourishment. The journey ahead is filled with challenges. Recharge yourself – then move forward into your calling.

December 27, 2018

Honor the Sabbath

“Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy.” – Ezekiel 20:12

“because they rejected my laws and did not follow my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths. For their hearts were devoted to their idols.” – Ezekiel 20:16

“You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths.” – Ezekiel 22:8

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.” – Exodus 20:8-10

How do you spend your Sabbath day? For most Christians, we have set apart Sunday for that day. But do you set it apart for God?

I know. There’s lots of reasons that doesn’t happen in your life. Some people work to feed their families and pay bills. Some people work to provide for the rest of us. These include doctors and hospital staff, police officers and fire fighters. But what about the rest of us?

In the area in which I live, baseball is huge. There are night games during the week. Saturdays are filled with ball games. And, increasingly, Sunday too is occupied with baseball.

Now, I love baseball. I do. But when it comes to kids and families I sometimes wonder if we’ve misplaced our priorities.

We talk a lot about putting God back into our schools and government. We’re adamant about our beliefs when it comes to what the Bible says about controversial subjects. But it’s difficult not to see the hypocrisy when it comes to how we view the Sabbath.

One parent explained that he always led a devotional for the players and coaches before the Sunday games. Besides, he continued, the kids enjoy playing so it’s not really work. My question was this: When do they rest? The hard truth he couldn’t deny is that they don’t rest.

We have become a land of busy people seeking God in all the wrong places. We make excuses when it’s something we want to do and we condemn others for doing what we think they shouldn’t do. We ignore God’s clear laws in order to chase after idols.

Please don’t try and tell me that baseball isn’t an idol. Anything – baseball, money, job, fishing, yard work – that comes before God is an idol. When you choose to ignore the Sabbath, you choose to ignore God.

Everyone needs a day of rest, whether that day is Sunday or another day of the week. We need a chance to recharge and to remember God and all that He does for us. We need time to refocus our priorities back on our Creator. It is from Him that we draw our strength, gain our wisdom, and live according to His calling on our lives.

So, what are you doing on Sunday? If the answer doesn’t involve worshipping God, you need to rethink your faith.

May 17, 2018

Be Still

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

– Psalm 46:10

We are tethered to technology. The cell phone is a friend that never leaves our side. We have Facebook, Instagram and all sorts of other ways to communicate. We are never disconnected and we are never really alone.

Society sure has changed and while I applaud some of the advances, I also cringe at some of those same things. Do we ever stop? Do we even realize that it’s okay not to answer the phone or respond to a text right away?

We use technology as a crunch. Have you ever watched people who are alone in a crowd? That phone pops out and we’re just so busy, so involved, so necessary. We aren’t really alone. Someone wants to check in on us. We’re important. That’s the message we’re trying to send anyway.

And there is God, patiently waiting for us to acknowledge Him. This is the God of the universe, the Creator of all things, Yahweh. He’s a big deal, you know. But we’re just so busy that we don’t have much time to spend with Him.

We’re too busy. Really. We are. Be still, God tells us. And know peace. And know wisdom. And know who He is. Really and truly.

Priscilla Shirer offered up the 14-minute challenge in her Breathe Bible Study. Can you rest for 14 minutes. Can you turn off the phone, turn off the television, and just breathe? Can you be silent with God for 14 minutes? Can you shut out the rest of the world and focus only on Yahweh? Remember it’s only for 14 minutes. Can you do it? Are you sure?

There was a time when we left work and went home, knowing we wouldn’t have to deal with work issues until the next day. There was a time when we could truly take a vacation without being bombarded by texts and e-mails. Life changes. I understand that. But some changes have shifted us around to a place that stresses us out and provides for no margin of rest.

God says it’s okay to rest. When God rested on that seventh day, it wasn’t because He was tired. Shirer pointed this out in her study. He’s God. He doesn’t get tired. Besides, it’s not like He was out doing something strenuous. God spoke everything into being. He said it and it was so. As amazing as that is, it wasn’t that hard for God.

So why did He create the Sabbath? Because God understood that we would need rest. He didn’t design us to go all out seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year. God wants us to work hard. He also wants us to spend time with Him, rejuvenating our soul and forming a deep relationship with Him.

But we’re just so busy. Do you remember when the Israelites were wandering around for 40 years? God provided manna from heaven for them to eat. And what did He say. On the sixth day, God provided enough for the sixth and seventh days so that the Israelites wouldn’t have to work on the Sabbath. If they gathered too much and tried to hoard extra, it spoiled and stunk badly. God wanted them to learn to depend on His daily provision. He wants us to learn the same thing.

The world will not fall apart if we sit down and rest. The world will not end if we turn off the cell phone and the television and just spend quality time with God. That’s been a hard lesson for me to learn. I’m accustomed to always working, always doing, always trying to get caught up. How about you?

Take the 14-minute challenge. Close the door and shut out the world. Give those 14 minutes to God. Be still. Remember who He is. Praise His Holy Name. Let His peace wash over you. Rest.

April 20, 2018

Embrace Sabbath Rest

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

– Hebrews 4:9-11

It’s a study I need. Desperately. It’s titled Breathe and it’s led by Priscilla Shirer. What’s the topic? Sabbath rest. Or, maybe I should just say rest. It’s about God giving us permission to rest.

Wow. There is power in that. Freedom. We know about Sunday. We talk about the day of rest. We just don’t think it applies to us. We haven’t earned a rest. We have too much to do. And don’t forget the kids. Their activities never cease, even on Sunday.

I’m not sure where I acquired the notion that it’s not okay to rest. Maybe it came from my parents, who questioned me pointedly if I sat down for even a moment to rest. I was expected to always be working, to always be serving, to always be doing their bidding. Few people realized how long my days were.

Now my parents are gone but their voices linger in my head. I don’t want to be lazy. I can’t be lazy. There are too many animals to tend, a farm to manage, and an income to earn. But I am tired. And I feel like I can’t sit down with a book or magazine and simply rest. Even on Sunday.

How about you? When do you rest? I know there are people who veg out in front of the television. We always hear about those people. I don’t personally know any of them. The people I know are too busy juggling life’s demands to sit down and do nothing, even for a short period of time.

I look at our children and wonder if they will ever understand the concept of rest or Sabbath. They attend school five days each week. They also have ball practice or dance or other after school activities. Even Sunday is now filled with dance competitions or ball tournaments.

I asked one mom, “When do they rest?” She looked at me as though I’d lost my mind. “Oh, they enjoy it,” she assured me.

Seriously? How can they not be tired? They never have down time to simply play and enjoy being a child.

It’s a vicious cycle. And we don’t want to set boundaries, for them or for us, because what would people think? Do we truly believe that the more we do the better people we become? Do we think we have to fill every waking moment with some activity?

I get it. I do. I’m there with you. I’ve only made it through one week of this study and my eyes have opened. It doesn’t mean I’ve changed my behavior. That’s a habit that will take some time to reprogram. But it really does reveal to me how destructive being busy all the time can be.

It also tells me that God never intended for any of us to be overworked and stressed all the time. He created Sabbath for us to rest and recharge. God modeled that behavior for us. He gave us the freedom to do nothing for a time. We have His permission. It’s time to embrace rest, to allow ourselves to be filled up again so that we might continue the work God has called us to do.

May 14, 2016

Take It To Jesus Today

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” -- Matthew 11:28-30

Some days I sit down late at night, so exhausted I just want to have a good cry, and try to remember where my day went. I was busy all day long and yet I didn’t seem to accomplish anything.

Have you ever been there? Do you know what I’m talking about?

I cooked. I washed dishes. I drove others to various destinations. I did laundry. I counted cows. I fed geese and dogs. I mowed grass. I watered flowers. I cleaned and bandaged a hurt toe on someone else. I sorted medicines. I helped make homemade jelly and then cleaned up the kitchen -- again. Oh, and I tried to complete a painting so I could earn a little money.

Yes, I am tired. What did you do today? I’m betting that while the tasks were different, for at least some of you the day was equally as long. I am a caregiver for two elderly adults. You might by a young mom with small children who is juggling a job and everything else. You could be a man working overtime to help his child pay for college. We all have our stories and we all get tired from life’s demands.

Jesus said to come to Him and He will give us rest. I need that, don’t you? I need to be covered in peace and grace, to rest in His embrace, so that I can recharge enough to do it all again tomorrow.

So many times we try to do it all ourselves. We don’t want to take time from the little bit we have to spend with Jesus. We tell ourselves that somehow tomorrow will come with more of that special thing called time. Except it doesn’t because tomorrow is like today and the day after.

What happens when we don’t recharge in the arms of Jesus? What happens to our souls, our peace, our strength, when we don’t take time to rest in Him? Sooner or later there just won’t be anything left. Nothing. And we’ll become empty shells of who God intended us to be.

We were built with an inner longing to know and worship God Almighty. We can try to fill ourselves up with stuff. We can put it off. We can try to persuade ourselves that it’s not important. But we will never, ever have peace and rest until we do.

Take time today and spend it with Jesus. Then do it again tomorrow. Rest in His strength and draw from it. Find comfort in His Presence and learn from Him. He’s waiting. Don’t put it off any longer. You need Him. We all do.

May 10, 2016

Be Still Before Him

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.

-- Isaiah 30:15

Some days are just busy. I’m frantically trying to get everything done, to meet everyone’s needs, and there just doesn’t seem to be enough time for it all.

Deep breath.

I don’t have to get it all done. As someone told me today, it’ll be there tomorrow. I laughed at the time. That’s what I know. Because at the end of the day, it’ll be me that gets it done or it won’t get done.

It creates a busyness that frustrates me. Do you know what I mean? I long for the days I could kick back and simply read a book without interruptions and without feeling guilty for all I still needed to do.

Then I am reminded that rest is available. It’s been freely given to me but I have to reach out and accept it. Sometimes I have a difficult time doing that.

I think it’s part of being human. We want to control our surroundings. We want to be productive people. We want to look pulled together. So we circle round and round on a merry go round that never, ever ends.

Priorities. What are my priorities? Are they that never ending to do list? Or is it to quiet myself before my Lord and Savior to be strengthened and savored in His Presence?

I am not a perfect person. No one is. So I take it to God. I tell Him about the mistakes I’ve made, ask for His forgiveness and then take a different path.

And then I rest in it. We often beat ourselves up about something long after God has put it behind Him. Follow His lead. Move on.

Walk in His strength. Trust Him to work it all out. Be quiet before Him and listen for His voice. Remember that it is in the quiet stillness that we can most hear Him speak.

I don’t have to get it all done. Really, I never will. And that’s okay. Because I’m okay in His Presence. I find rest there. Always.

March 8, 2016

Trust God

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.

-- Isaiah 30:15

This verse has shown up at different times in my life, always when I needed it most. God is good that way. He gives us what we need, when we need it.

It’s very simple really. We are to repent when we sin, then rest in God’s grace. A sweet friend wrote about leaving our past in the past. We don’t. We keep dredging it up. God has forgiven us and forgotten it. Not us. We’ve got to go over it again and again and again, beating ourselves up over something we can’t change.

We also have a need to fix things, to change other people, to control what goes on around us. We can’t, of course. Only God can. But we are so determined to try.

God calls us to be quiet and trust Him. So simple and so strong. Give it to God and walk away. Stop obsessing and let it go. Your strength -- your true strength -- comes in trusting God to work things out for your good and His glory.

This message was aimed at Judah. They were looking everywhere for military might instead of trusting God to save them. We do the same thing. When we need help we look everywhere but to the One who can save us. He’s just waiting for us to ask, to seek, to count on Him to do what He wants to do for us. We belong to Him and He loves us unconditionally.

But we would have none of it. Let’s not forget that last line of this verse. We can choose to ignore God’s help. We can choose to go our own way. We can choose to do it alone. Or we can seek God and trust Him to do what is best.

It’s quite simple really. Trust God or wallow in the aftermath of your own choices.

January 4, 2014

Find Rest In Jesus

 

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

-- John 10:10

I am exhausted. That's not unusual. It was another busy day. Except there is a voice in the back of mind that keeps reminding me that it is Sunday. A day of rest. Not a day to be so tired.

What did I do? Attended church. Taught Sunday school. Bought lunch. Washed dishes. Completed late afternoon lesson. Led late afternoon discussion. Got home after dark. Still have family duties waiting for me. Then I can shower and fall into bed and blissful sleep. I hope.

Don't get me wrong. I have a good life. It is full of  blessings. I am grateful. I am. I just wish I wasn't so tired. I just wish the toll of this wonderful life didn't leave me too exhausted to enjoy it.

Maybe enjoyment isn't what it's all about. What is "happy" anyway? For many, it's the stuff that we fill our lives with. But for how long? Stuff won't fill that hole inside. It's momentary. Fleeting.

I consider what I would change about my day. Not much. I am doing what I love, what I believe God has called me to do. Fatigue is part of the cost and that's okay most of the time.

The other days of my life are a work in progress. This new reality that has engulfed me threatens to consume me. I am fighting it. There is a deep need for solitude that comes before everyone else has done with me for the day. There is a need for exercise and healthy eating without having to fight that battle every day. When do my needs matter to someone besides myself?

They matter to Jesus. I matter to Jesus. My weariness matters to Him. I find my strength in His words. I find my joy in His promises. And on days like this, when the fatigue seeps deep into my pours, it is where I find my rest.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Make Time To Rest

Then Jesus said, “Let’s get away from the crowds for a while and rest.” There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat. -- John 6:31

It feels like I am loosing my mind. I am being pulled in so many different directions. Everybody seems to want something and, frankly, there just isn’t enough of me to go around. You probably know exactly what I mean. Most of us go through this at some point.

I am so thankful that Jesus understands. He tells the apostles to go away with Him and rest for a while. He tells us that too.

It seems difficult to find the time in a day that has no time left. Yet, how can anyone make it through the day without spending time alone with God? Quiet time. Alone time. A time to seek and to hear, to find comfort and strength. Words of wisdom. Words to live by.

Have you ever gone to God too weary and numb to even know what to say? I have. And amazingly He hears everything I can’t seem to say. The Holy Spirit tells Him what I cannot find the words to express.

When did we all get so busy? Has life always been this way? Maybe so. I guess I just kept thinking that one day it would be better. I’d dream about the occasional day off. I’d long for a day when I could sleep in, read fiction and laze in the sun. Dreams for another day, a better day, a day that likely will never come.

Life is always busy and, really, would we have it any other way? Wasn’t it meant to be filled with family and friends, God’s work and earning a living, laughter and nourishment? Aren’t we supposed to fill our moments with life? Of course. Just as we’re also supposed to find time for rest and renewal.

So take a little time for yourself. Find it where you can. One friend had quiet time in her bathroom -- the only place she wouldn’t be interrupted. Another woman found solitude in her walk-in closet. It doesn’t matter because God will meet you where you’re at. Give yourself strength for another day by taking time to rest in the arms of Jesus.

Wednesday,May 25, 2011

Find Rest In Jesus

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

-- Mark 6:31

Some days are just hard. The days become weeks. The weeks become months. And on and on it goes. No rest for the weary. No time off for the workers.

Everyone needs time off. Everyone needs to recharge. Everyone needs a time when they are not taking care of the needs of someone else but rather are resting mentally and physically from the demands of others. Jesus understood this. Sometimes I wonder why others seem to miss it.

I’ve heard all the flippant comments. But it’s not about being grateful. It’s not about time. It’s not even about memories and duty and necessity. It’s about fatigue, most days more mental than physical. It’s the constant demands and questions, the comments and attitude. It all requires patience most of us don’t have. And yet we must.

A couple of years ago a friend’s husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. During the months he remained at home, her life deteriorated substantially. She became his memory. She repeated things again and again. She loved him and it was her duty as his wife to care for him. Knowing that didn’t make the days any easier.

Another friend nursed her husband through the end stages of a brain tumor. Her children helped. Sitters filled in. And, yet, the burden was hers. Even a trip to the store for necessities left her guilt-ridden. What if something happened while she was gone? It didn’t matter that she never left with fewer than two people with him -- a sitter and a family member. She carried the heartache.

A neighbor recently took a bad fall. She keeps trying to do things she no longer can physically do. It’s upsetting her family, as you might imagine. I can relate. You try to help and the very people you are trying to help are working against you every step of the way. It’s frustrating and a cause for constant worry.

Dr. Karl Stegall talked Sunday about laying your burdens at God’s altar. Handing it all over to Jesus because, really, how can one human ever withstand the demands of life? We can’t. So we bend down and place the worries and concerns, the problems and heartaches, at His feet. Rest for our souls. Thank you Jesus.