Rest

STRENGTH FOR THE WEARY

Standard

EAGLE GOLDEN
Haven’t you known, haven’t you heard
that the everlasting God, Adonai,
the Creator of the ends of the earth,
does not grow tired or weary?
His understanding cannot be fathomed.
He invigorates the exhausted,
He gives strength to the powerless.
Young men may grow tired and weary,
even the fittest may stumble and fall;
but those who hope in Adonai will renew their strength,
they will soar aloft as with eagles’ wings;
when they are running they won’t grow weary,
when they are walking they won’t get tired.
Isaiah 40:28-31
Complete Jewish Bible

Are you weary today? Are you tired of the “rat race” so to speak? Well, I am. I have to depend on the Lord to renew my strength daily. And you know what I’ve discovered? He usually doesn’t give it ahead of time. He doesn’t give me tomorrow’s strength today. He gives me today’s strength for today and tomorrow’s strength will be there when I need it.

We can spend our entire life anticipating the future and it won’t change it one bit. But if we spend our entire life trusting in God’s grace for the future, it changes everything! Rest follows very closely on the heels of trust. If you are truly trusting, you will abide in rest. There is no place for stress in the believing heart. Oh, you will have opportunity for it, but don’t let it get a foot in the door. When stress comes knocking…send a trusting heart to answer. For once you let stress get a foothold, you have to expend a lot of energy and more stress to get him out. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (James 4:7) Let’s learn to just head it off at the pass!

You may be thinking, “Well, God may get tired of me constantly depending on Him.” Are you kidding me?! Our Heavenly Father loves for us to be totally dependent on Him. He wants us to rest in His unending grace, the unmerited favor that Jesus purchased for us with such an awesome price…His own shed blood. And Our Father never gets tired or weary. He’s always there, waiting for His children to call on Him, day or night. But you know what is even better? We can just abide in His grace, knowing that moment by moment He is providing our every need. Knowing that, as an eagle, He will give us the strength…physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally to soar above the temptations, trials and stresses of this life. Hallelujah!!! Now make a decision that from this moment on, you’re going to abide in His grace, rest in His love…and trust Him to help you soar with the wings of an eagle!

DON’T STRESS . . . REST

Standard

REST - KITTEN

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened,
and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me,
for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest
(relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.
Matthew 11:28-29 Amplified Bible

When my granddaughter, Grace, was an infant, my daughter took her to the pediatrician for a follow-up visit. She was a tiny little thing, just two months old at the time. Her older sister, Charity, had gone along to help Mom. Because of some problems she had since birth, they needed to take blood from her vein rather than a finger prick. They were all in the examination room when the blood was to be extracted, so the nurse asked Charity to stand at the head of the table and help hold and calm her, while mom stood at the side.

As she was so tiny, the nurse had a difficult time inserting the syringe. Charity was at her post trying not to get upset at the quickly escalating fiasco. But as Grace got more upset, Charity’s stress level was elevating also. Then it peaked. She started to wobble a bit, her eyes lost focus and at that point her mom saw her slide slowly down the wall and under the table. She had fainted! They had to put the blood work on hold and take care of Charity who was out cold! She was trying so hard to be strong for her baby sister, but the stress took its toll.

Sometimes life is like that. I know personally, I always want to be strong for my family. I will put my own health in jeopardy to meet their needs or desires. But especially during holidays when the pace is so hectic anyway, it can take a toll. And often our stress is not necessarily from outside sources, but self-imposed. We don’t want to say “no”. We don’t want to inconvenience anyone else…never mind about us! We don’t even want to compromise. We want to do it the way we’ve done it for the last umpteen years and we want to do it perfectly. And besides, if you want it done right (whatever it is), do it yourself! Does any of this sound familiar?

Well the only problem with this attitude is that circumstances and people (including ourselves) change from year to year. And if we don’t change with them, the stress level can max us out to the point that we end up under the table! We can become overly fatigued or even sick. When that happens, we’re no good to anyone, not even ourselves! I must tell you that I’m writing this from personal experience. My lessons in moderation have been learned the hard way. I’ve always wanted to be Super-Mom, Super-Friend, just Super to everyone! But as the years have passed some of my super powers have waned a bit. I’ve had to make some modifications to my job description. I’ve come to understand that it’s more important to me and my family for me to be in super-rest rather than super-stress. And when I forget that, I go to the Lord, give it to Him once again, and enter into the rest that only complete confidence in Him can bring.

Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him.
Psalm 62:1

ARE YOU IN STRESS OR REST?

Standard

GIRL, DOVE, REST

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.
Psalm 62:5

It seems that one of the definitions of our times is restlessness. I heard the other day that most adults now days have the attention span of one second less than a goldfish. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that! That statement hit me right between the eyes!

Many people are hurrying here and scurrying there and when they arrive, they immediately have to leave for somewhere else. Sound familiar? I’ve often had the discussion with friends about why most of us are so forgetful now days…even young people. And the inescapable conclusion is always that we have too much stress in our lives…too many things on our mind or…as the old country saying goes, “Too many irons in the fire!

I find that most of the time I can’t just sit quietly and do nothing. I have to be doing something to occupy my mind, as if it wasn’t cluttered enough! I’ve been asking the Lord to help me to break this pattern of being so uptight about everything. And I find that most of the stress I have is self-imposed. For example, that car in front of me isn’t going to go any faster no matter how frustrated I get! Then I get to work and someone has parked in two spaces, so I have to find a parking place much farther up causing me to be late for work (once again)! The needle on the stress-o-meter is rising! When I get to work, I sit down and reach for my favorite pen. Someone has walked off with it. Why can’t people just leave my stuff alone! I just started my day and my stress meter is already at the half-way point! I’m exaggerating somewhat, but you get the point. You may be thinking, “That is such trivial stuff. Why would anyone get bent out of shape by those things?” Because we get into a pattern of restlessness and it causes every little thing to be blown out of proportion.

I’ll tell you what really started me thinking about all of this. I was headed home one day after work, a few years ago. I was tired and didn’t particularly feel good, so I was intent on getting home as quickly as possible. I was breezing through the north part of the city trying to make the traffic lights. I went through the first one on caution. Okay, I’m safe there. If these people would just get out of my way! Then I went through the other one on caution, too, but it must have changed to red before I got through because in a few moments I saw blue lights flashing behind me. Oh, dear…you know that feeling…somewhere between panic and hysteria! The officer who stopped me was very nice, but at the same time very firm. In spite of all my pleading, I ended up with a ticket for running a red light. That incident started me doing some serious introspection. I realized that I needed God’s help to break this pattern of anxiety (lack of rest) in my life. It was an expensive lesson, but one that I have not yet forgotten.

Stress does not just wreak havoc on our circumstances, but on our physical and spiritual well-being as well. In our society today, it takes some real effort to maintain peace. But if we keep our eyes on the Peacemaker, it is not impossible. And the benefits of living in rest far outweigh the effort necessary to obtain it.

Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you.
Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]

John 14:27 (AMP)

RENEWED HOPE

Standard

I cried out, “I am slipping!”
But Your unfailing love, O Lord, supported me.
When doubts filled my mind,
Your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.
Psalm 94:18-19

Have you ever felt totally hopeless? I have. I can remember times in my life when I thought it would be a blessing to go home to be with the Lord. I was physically sick and emotionally drained. I just wanted to rest. I felt like that old commercial that the younger generation won’t remember…“Calgon…take me away!”

In those times, my love for my children kept me going. Now mind you, my children were grown and had children of their own, but still my love for them had not waned in the least from the time they were born until now. I thought, “I need to be here for them. I need to be strong for them. I need to be available if they need me. I can’t leave my children. I will never forsake my children!”

I made that statement a little dramatic at the end to make a point. If we, as human parents, feel so strongly about our relationship with our children, how much more does our Heavenly Father feel about His relationship with us, His children…His creation. Do you realize that God Himself breathed into Adam to give him life? “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

This is what the Paul, the Apostle says in Hebrews 13:5, “For He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] (Amplified Version) Wow! That’s how much God thinks of you, His child. Think of a father crossing the street, holding the hand of a young child. That child may try to pull away, but the father has a firm grip on him. He will not relax his hold…no way! If you are a born again believer, you are a child of God and He will not let you down. He WILL NOT relax His hold on you! Be totally confident in that today!