Are you at rest?

 

 A page from my personal studies…

 

I love Bible study. I love doing word studies, looking up parallel passages, and using different translations. Give me green tea, a pen, a study guide and my Bible, and I retreat to my “happy place.”

Yes, I am a Bible study geek. {smile}

Every so often, I will share what I am learning in my personal Bible study time with you. (My personal study time is different than my devotional or quiet time. I will be writing more on this later…)

The Father and the Child

The child spoke:

Father, I am tired. It seems that I am always tired.

I know, My child. You need rest.

But I don’t have time to rest! I can’t even get everything done as it is.

The rest I speak of is a special rest that only I can give. But you must come to Me to receive it.

How long will it take?

It will take a lifetime.

A lifetime? I don’t understand.

My rest is given to those who are willing to give up living life in their own strength. This means that you allow Me to be your strength, your Shepherd who will guide you all the days of your life along the right paths.

Living in my own strength, is that what I have been doing?

You have complicated your life by trying to do too much. Your busyness has kept you from what is essential: your time to know Me and what I desire for you.

Is there a simpler way?

My way is the way of freedom, peace, and rest. My way is the way of simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

May I have the rest that You give?

Yes. Come, take My yoke.

~excerpt from Becoming A Woman Of Simplicity by Cynthia Heald, page 11.

 

Running from rest

My youngest is 19 months old. She loves to run. She really loves to run away from me when I announce that it is naptime. Her running only delays the rest her little body needs to heal and grow.

When she was a newborn, she loved my arms. In fact, I believe that she slept deeper and longer whenever I held her close.

I am alot like my toddler.

I too, tend to run from my Heavenly Father when He calls me to stop and rest. Why do I delay what my body and soul needs to heal and grow?

Sin, busyness, and pride tend to make me falsely believe that I do not need to rest in my Heavenly Father’s arms…so I keep running.

I am tired of being tired.

I need naptime…

 

What I am learning

I am currently revisiting a Bible study I completed in 2009. I had the privelege of going to coffee with the study’s author, Cynthia Heald. We continue to correspond via email and at the end of her emails she always types: “Keeping my hand in His.”

Keeping my hand in His…what an effective word picture! Cynthia has taught me that this is the essence of rest.

I am learning that rest is not found in running.

Rest is found in remaining.

The more I cease to run from God and remain (stay connected/abide) in God’s presence, the more I experience true and lasting rest.

 

Rest in Jesus is a reality

I always tend to think of rest in a purely physical sense. I am starting to understand that I may never feel rested physically. I will never find rest from heartache, sickness, or tragedy either, because we live in a fallen world.

However, I am learning in my studies that rest in Jesus Christ, is a REALITY.

This is what He has promised:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

~{Jesus} Matthew 11:28-30, NIV

 

Are you at rest? Or are you surviving off of your own strength? If you are rest, keep your hand in His. If you are tired of being tired, then come and take Jesus’ yoke. He is waiting…

May your heart find rest today. Let’s keep our hand in His…

*This week on the One Degree Ministries Facebook page, I will be giving away a free copy of this study. This is simply a way for me to bless one of you tangibly. There will be more drawings and other encouraging posts on the ODM Facebook page, so  if you haven’t yet, consider connecting with me there as well. I am thankful for you! God bless 🙂

 

For further study

In Becoming a Woman of Simplicity, Cynthia had us read the following verses to learn how we can experience spiritual rest (pages 17,20). I encourage you to do the same:

• Psalm 37:7
• Psalm 46:10
• Psalm 127:1-2
• Isaiah 30:15