Learning to Rest

Do you ever get caught up in the craziness of life and forget to rest?

I know y’all never stay up too late or drink extra coffee to remain coherent. And for sure y’all never lay awake at night with a million things running through your brain or run around like a crazy person to accomplish all that you need to in a day.

So how do we rest? Well, I don’t know that I can fix sleep issues or even schedules – but I do know Who provides rest.

Most of us have read Matthew 11:28, ” ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.'” We know from whom true rest comes, but how do we get there? How do we really experience His rest?

I would submit to you a few things:

1.            God has called us all to certain things, not everything – many of us, me included, feel like we need to rescue the world or that some things won’t ever make it without us. Well, truth be told they might not, but maybe someone else isn’t doing the things God called them to or maybe He just did not intend for it to happen.

2.            If our focus is on something other than Jesus, we are following the wrong thing – I get caught up sometimes thinking my kids have to do certain things or I am obligated to do things all because everyone else is. Well, I am not. My kids do not have to be in extracurricular activities all the time. I do not have to be at the church setting up tables and such every time something is going on. I don’t HAVE to do any of it. I only HAVE to follow Him.

3.            Peace and contentment come from a relationship with Jesus and a heart that loves Him wholeheartedly – there is no other place to find such things. It is not about checking boxes (the Pharisees tried that), it is not about to do lists, it is about Jesus.

So – I say we look to Jesus, sit at His feet, and determine if the “things” we are doing are truly what He has called us to – and then do those things WHOLEHEARTEDLY. That is where we find rest.