The best rest is in Christ

Last evening I made the mistake of looking at a book about color and design before I went to bed. It filled me with ideas and I could not sleep with all that going on in my head. I’d also discovered earlier that a company had take money from me without my knowledge. The strategy needed to get a refund was also in my mind. Not being able to sleep is abnormal as I usually am out as soon as my head hits the pillow. I did think of this verse:

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. (Psalm 127:2)

The verse didn’t help because I could not stop “eating the bread” with anxiety about the rip-off and excitement about the designs and making plans for my quilt fabric stash.

This morning I did a search for “rest” and discovered this word is used more than 350 times in the Bible. One of the prophets used it to describe the Messiah:

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord…. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. (Isaiah 11:1–2; 10)

I cannot imagine Jesus being kept awake by important things, never mind the relative trivia that occupied my thoughts. As I thought of Him, I considered what He wanted from me. Certainly, sleep would come if I was not worried about the refund due me. I tried to think biblically about the power of God to take care of that issue, only to relate to these words:

Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ (Jeremiah 6:16)

I wanted a solution. That was the problem. I could not just give it to the Lord. However, He has more to say about that, something that evaded me in the middle of the night and rebukes me this morning — as well as granting a solution for not sleeping well…

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. (Matthew 11:28–29)

PRAY: Jesus, my body is paying the price of trying to carry a burden too heavy for me and for trying to design something when I needed to put everything aside and rest. Sometimes I feel like a spoiled child that keeps saying, ‘I can do it myself’ instead of letting You take care of all things. I hear Your voice in the words of the psalmist: "Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." (Psalm 116:7)


 

It’s time to rest . . .

 

That saying, ‘Sin will keep you from the Bible and the Bible will keep you from sin’ is the topic of today’s devotional. The idea is that if I want to harbor sin (rather than confess it), then my receptivity to the Word of God will be affected. There are days when I don’t feel like reading it, something like going to the doctor every day for a check-up and wanting a break from all those appointments.

Yet being daily in the Word is a good thing. God always speaks. However, sometimes what He says creates heavy prayer burdens. Is my longing for a break a sign that rebellion lurks? Could be.

This morning I woke up tired. Medications sometimes cause that, but the doctor tells me these meds are important to my health and will not let me stop taking them. The Holy Spirit is like that; no sympathy for this desire to just be ‘normal’ and without His desire for change and spiritual growth in my life or His command to “Pray without ceasing.” No matter that I sometimes resist, the desire to follow Him remains. I am with the psalmist in these prayers:

Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:13-14)

I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. (Psalm 119:101)

Clearly a choice is in order. I need to decide to obey. Before Christ, I could only choose my way, which is contrary to God’s way . . .

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

This all changed with Jesus in my life. The NT backs this up affirming that those who belong to God have an ability to choose, to say yes to Him . . .

I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. (Romans 6:19)

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:21)

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— (1 Peter 2:1–2)

Becoming a Christian is like stepping on a moving walkway. I can stop walking but it keeps moving me forward, giving me desires to grow and be like Jesus. If I stop by not reading the Bible, not meeting with other Christians, not praying, that walkway is relentless. Soon I must repent, relax, let it carry me forward. Making the right choices is walking with the movement of God rather than thinking that I do not need Him to carry me, that I can do it myself. The Christian life is amazing in the way God does His saving work.

Today, His walkway is taking me to a resting place, contrary to my plans and ambitions for the day. I need to cooperate with what His Spirit is doing rather than striving to have my own way — which is the “going astray” that the Bible speaks about, the iniquity for which Jesus died.

PRAY: Jesus, You know me better than I know myself. You know what I need today. Not only do I want the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart to be acceptable to You, I want my plans and ambitions to fit in with the will of Your gracious and good heart. Thank You for reminding me that I cannot listen to You and do my own thing at the same time.

PONDER: “Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you” (Psalm 116:7) and think about these verses about resting: Psalm 132:14; Isaiah 30:15 and 32:18; Jeremiah 6:16; Matthew 11:28–29; Luke 12:25–26; and:

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:9–11)