This is a message I wrote about over 2 years ago, but never published it. As I was looking over some of my old unpublished blog drafts I read this one and feel it's still a really important message of receiving the promise of rest and learning to rest in God all the time.
January 2015
There's something very important I've been learning about lately. I've been listening to a series by one of my favorite speakers, Graham Cooke, called "The Practice of Rest," and let me say...
It's been life changing.
Father God has been trying to get me to pick up on this concept for awhile now, through other people. Whether it was my friend who, while talking to her about the season I had been in, told me I just needed to rest in God; or my husband who has said over and over, "you seriously need to learn to rest!" I'm finally getting it! At least I'm getting the clue that I need to learn how to rest, so that I can in fact really live a life of
rest.
Now, the rest I'm referring to isn't necessarily the kind of rest where you go on vacation, take a nap each day or get 8 hours of sleep a night (although that type of rest is extremely important and necessary). It's the kind of rest that says, "I am unshaken by circumstances, so much so, it doesn't matter what kind of season I'm in, I can and will remain joyful, calm and anchored in the Lord, knowing he's in control. I'm blessed and highly favored, and He has good plans for me." When you know deep in your heart that no matter what, He has everything under control, you can have a peace of mind and heart that sleeps (or relaxes or rests) through anything, rain or shine; calm waters, or stormy ones.
Maybe you're familiar with the story in Matthew 8, where Jesus calms the storm?
"Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”'
Did you catch that?
They were in a boat. There came a fierce storm. Jesus was sleeping. And they had to literally WAKE him to do something about it. Now that's my kind of rest!
"Jesus responded, '“Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm. The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!”'
When a storm came, Jesus could sleep right through it because he was truly at rest.
How do you handle challenges in life? With panic & fear? Or with faith, peace and trust? I've tried it both ways, and let me tell you, that handling circumstances with faith is so much easier and quicker than panic and worry! When I've responded in worry or unrest, I end up messing everything up and it ends up taking twice as long to get through it. But when I've responded with faith and trust, it always worked out so much better, and I could actually get excited to see how God would work it all out. It turned into an adventure rather than a burden. When you're at rest, you can handle anything with the help of Christ! Because either way he's going to work it out, it's up to you how you choose to respond.
Don't be deceived that worry will bring you the results you want or need. Jesus said it very plainly in Matthew 6:34 NOT to worry about tomorrow. And in Luke 12 He says not to worry about everyday stuff because worries won't add anything to your life. All it does is slow you down, and puts a weight on your shoulders you were never meant to carry. Rest is not just available to us in Christ, it's also a command! Entering into God's rest is actually an act of obedience. This should drive deeper how very important resting is. Learn the art of rest. It's a promise for you TODAY!
Blessings!
Love, Kristin
"Although God’s promise still stands—his promise that all may enter his place of rest—we ought to tremble with fear because some of you may be on the verge of failing to get there after all. 2 For this wonderful news—the message that God wants to save us—has been given to us just as it was to those who lived in the time of Moses. But it didn’t do them any good because they didn’t believe it. They didn’t mix it with faith. 3 For only we who believe God can enter into his place of rest. He has said, “I have sworn in my anger that those who don’t believe me will never get in,” even though he has been ready and waiting for them since the world began.4 We know he is ready and waiting because it is written that God rested on the seventh day of creation, having finished all that he had planned to make.5 Even so they didn’t get in, for God finally said, “They shall never enter my rest.” 6 Yet the promise remains and some get in—but not those who had the first chance, for they disobeyed God and failed to enter.7 But he has set another time for coming in, and that time is now. He announced this through King David long years after man’s first failure to enter, saying in the words already quoted, “Today when you hear him calling, do not harden your hearts against him.”8 This new place of rest he is talking about does not mean the land of Israel that Joshua led them into. If that were what God meant, he would not have spoken long afterwards about “today” being the time to get in. 9 So there is a full complete rest still waiting for the people of God. 10 Christ has already entered there. He is resting from his work, just as God did after the creation. 11 Let us do our best to go into that place of rest, too, being careful not to disobey God as the children of Israel did, thus failing to get in.12 For whatever God says to us is full of living power: it is sharper than the sharpest dagger, cutting swift and deep into our innermost thoughts and desires with all their parts, exposing us for what we really are. 13 He knows about everyone, everywhere. Everything about us is bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God; nothing can be hidden from him to whom we must explain all that we have done." Hebrews 4:1-13 TLB
