Prepared to Rest
I like this place. I could see myself wasting time here // William Shakespeare
The journey, long but worth it,
for the feeling when I wake
and smell hash-browns roasting over the fire // Obediah Caleb Rattray age 11
Do you recognize your own labor? We arduously spend the week. We run hard after the Lord. We need resting places.
The days can seem so long, so full. How many times have you wondered was it just yesterday that happened?
Hebrews 4:4 Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered [today], let us be afraid [to distrust it], lest any of you should think he has come too late and has come short of [reaching] it.
Be afraid not of God but, to distrust the rest God offers you today. Trust it. Fully lean in.
It’s late, but not too late. You take your worn running shoes off, and collapse into the rest of God. You’re free. You’re guiltless with one thought: I offer nothing here, no strain is left, my heavy limbs surrender to HIS rest.
Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
The King of the all the earth, gave himself to work, and when he did crowds gave way to astonished praise. Let’s reference the passage below:
Deaf and Mute Man is Healed
31 Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. 32 Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. 33 And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
I can almost feel the heave of the sigh of Jesus. His shoulders rise slow and fall in equal release. The Son of God postured to call upon heaven. And then with all the strength of the Father above He commands- “Be opened.” The work of Jesus is glorious.
When do we stop and marvel at it?
When have we pulled back and took it in? The harvest is plentiful. Yes we should labor, but after labor stop and rest.
The books/studies pile like unread mail on the counters. The flood of messages keep coming, the dishes are endless, the messy beds need making, the laundry is more constant than snow this winter.
Working more, doesn’t produce more it only robs you of your rest after a job well done.
Make a list of works done well, and give astonished praise. Recall the stories of healing, recall His confirmations, His mercy washing us and making us new, His grace cleansing us of our wrongs.
Rest to the sound of HIS PRAISE. Pause at the summit of your week, and survey the incline, the forest and steeps His faithfulness has brought you through. Prepare to pull back this weekend, and gaze at the gift of another week sustained by the strength of God.
-amen be still and know that He alone is God
Isaiah 32:17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace [internal and external], and the result of righteousness will be quietness and confident trust forever.
18 My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.
Rest in Him- Charity
Photography and a few words from Megan Holloway
Rest knowing you may not be there yet but,
|| BELUM ||
Not yet, but with great hope.
This word was introduced to me on a mission trip I went on to Cambodia last summer. Cambodia captured my heart, and leaving was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do. The missionaries who led our trip shared this Indonesian word with us on the last night, Belum, meaning not yet, but with great hope.
We left Cambodia the next day, and as we took off on our way back to the U.S., I kept this word close to my heart. God has shut this door for now, but with great hope I trust in his plan.
Over the last year, this word has grown to mean so much more to me. This word should be the way we approach each day as believers, when we see the hurt in this world, when we see poverty and broken families and sex slavery and hunger, when darkness seems to overwhelm our vision, we remember that we have a greater hope whose name is Jesus. We know that the light will break through the dark, and so we spend our lives trying to show the world what just a glimmer of that light looks like, because Christ has had enough mercy and love to show it to us. We live each day knowing that His kingdom is coming.
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