What Rest in the Lord Accomplishes
Key Verse to Read and Treasure
In returning and rest shall be your strength (Isaiah 30:15, ESV)
For Insight
Have you noticed when you are tired you are not at your best? I know when I get tired my mind wanders more easily, I’m not my most creative. It takes me ten times as long to accomplish something than it normally would and even then, the finished product is not up to my usual standard. The best thing for me to do at those times it to put down whatever I am working on and take a rest. I waste more time trying to push through and force something that’s just not coming.
Sometimes we might have something we need to accomplish and want to push through our tiredness. Time constraints and deadlines might be staring us in the face, and we are feeling pressure from every angle—including from within—but it’s in these moments that God calls us to a physical rest and pausing so He can replenish and refresh us before we move forward.
Physical rests are necessary as we live out this hectic life but there is also another kind of rest. The rests we read about in the Bible. Especially something we see referred to in the Psalms. That kind of resting is the Lord is the rest that becomes a spiritual, more soulful observance. When we rest in God we are resting from confusion, stress, anxiety, our human striving, and efforts that get us nowhere. Resting in God is when we take a break from internal and external enemies and the unsettledness they introduce. It’s the position of our heart where God calls us to be calm, to be at peace and as Psalm 46:10 says to “be still and know (experience) he’s God.”
It’s only in rest we will find and rediscover our strength. Coming back to the place, to the One who does marvelous and wondrous things as we rest in Him. Our rests in the Lord are our surrendering of self, that place where we admit we cannot do our journey without Him, and He is the only place we can come to receive exactly what we need to keep going.
Praying Isaiah 30:15
Sweet Lord, You are the only place we can come to receive what we need. You are the resting place the world cannot offer or provide. When we are feeling weary, anxious, pushing too hard, relying too much on our own strength, working hard but getting nowhere may we return to You. Thank you for being here for us and giving us rest. Amen
Prayer Challenge
Instead of praying for more strength to complete a task try spending a few moments or longer in God’s presence doing nothing but drawing from Him.
Digging Deeper
devotionallyyours.org 