finding rest in God

I’ve decided to include my notes from my sermon in hopes that it might speak to you, apart from those who were at our service! Although this was from a month ago, the message is just as applicable for me, if not more so now as the tourist count continues to increase in the park, and my energy levels continue to plummet.

 

Finding Rest in God – message for July 1, 2018

During this past week, I’ve been recovering from a recent head injury that happened at work. This is my third minor concussion that I’ve had, so the recovery process is all too familiar for me. Get lots of rest. Limit screen time. Avoid loud noises and bright lights. Rest some more. And this is always SO hard for me. I want to be doing something, to be outside or go on a hike with friends. But instead I have to sit there and basically do nothing. This idea of doing nothing sounds so nice in theory, until you actually are doing nothing and suddenly you want to find something better to do. We glorify this idea of time off, but when do we take the time to truly rest?

As human beings, especially in todays society, we are always busy. Busy working, busy taking care of our families, busy with sports, too busy to make a call, or to pick up the phone. We go from one thing to the next, always on the go. We associate resting with non productivity- which seems to be frowned upon in our society. With a “lets see how much I can get done today” kind of life, we tend to wear ourselves thin and don’t take time to recharge. So when I’m forced to rest in order to recover properly, this true state of rest seems unbearably boring. But it’s so important to take a break from our busy lives and rest- both physically and spiritually. We can find rest in God, the one who takes up our burdens and gives us renewed strength, and this rest can come in different ways. 

Matthew 11:29-30 says: 

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” 

He invites us to rest in Him, to lay our problems on Him. He will take the weight of life off of our shoulders if only we would come to Him. This spiritual rest of letting go of our burdens and taking up God’s yoke makes life not only less stressful, but also easier. Instead of worrying about the future, rest in the knowledge that God has an ultimate plan. When you go through trials, rest in God’s comfort and his steadfast love. Psalm 62:8 says “trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us”. When things get rough, we have a God who takes our worries, our fears, and our burdens, picks them up, and lightens the load for us. 

I especially love the Message’s version of Matthew 11:30 which says “keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly”. Simply stated, when we lean on God, resting in Him, our lives lose some of the heaviness and stress of everyday life. Trusting in the Lord allows us to live freely and to focus on the more important things in our lives. Keeping company with God requires us to spend time with Him, it requires us to lean on Him, but it’s rewarding. 

Letting God into our stressful lives, allowing Him to carry our burdens definitely brings peace and a spiritual rest for our souls. But the physical kind of rest in the Lord is equally as important. Our human nature shouts “go, go go”, but sometimes we need to slow down. To halt our busy schedules and take time to rest in the Lord. This could be reading your bible, spending time in prayer, or even sitting in silence, centering yourself with God. This kind of rest looks different for every person, but each way brings us closer to the Lord. Spending time with the intention of drawing nearer to God not only deepens the relationship between us and our Creator, but also renews our soul and mind. In Psalm 23:2 , David writes “He (the Lord) makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads be beside still waters. He restores my soul” When we come to Him, He will give us rest.

He wants us to rest. 

He created the Sabbath with the intention of rest. In Genesis, it says that God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because it was this day that God rested from all his work that he had done. God doesn’t get tired, he didn’t need to take a nap after creating the world because he was exhausted. Instead, he rejoiced in his work and rested, setting an example for us. He calls us to rest, to halt our 100 mph lives and realign ourselves with Him again. Because when we are constantly on the move, we become not only physically drained, but also mentally and spiritually empty. Resting in God allows us to fill ourselves up again, ready to take on the day with a renewed spirit. 

I encourage you, (speaking to myself as well, because I need to work on this) to find time to quiet yourself before the Lord and to rest in Him. To lay your troubles and burdens before him and find joy and strength in the knowledge that the Lord will take your fears and anxiety and lift them from you. I know that resting can be a daunting task for those of us who are always on the move, but it is so vital for our spiritual lives as well as our physical bodies. God is always there to listen, waiting for us to take up his yoke and cast our burdens on Him. In order to live life wholeheartedly, and to live it to the fullest, we can’t rely on our own strength, we need to rest in the one who renews us each and every day.