Weakness and Rest
I call to You from the ends of the earth when my heart is without strength.
Lead me to a rock that is high above me.
I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him.
Lead me to a rock that is high above me.
I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him.
-Psalm 61:2 & 62:1
I just got back to work from a week of vacation. When we have a vacation, we rest from or normal work, but some of us do other work or even make recreation into work. Have you ever gone on a trip, that was supposed to be fun and enjoyable, only to feel more tired than when went you left?
I am still learning to rest. When I have time-off from my normal work schedule, there are many things I want to do. I think that is a good thing, but I just have to rest after I do them.
For me, physical tiredness affects my mental state. It is not well with my soul, when I am exhausted. When I am tired, I am vulnerable to being grouchy and seeing the world through grey glasses.
I remember being at a Saturday leadership meeting and there was a man there who led a significant ministry in California, and he was dozing off. He had the grace to fall asleep in the meeting. I was discipled right there, by this older gentleman's example.
Many of the rest of us hit exhaustion while we are going, performing, or driving; with bad results.
Be a life-long-learner. I have been learning about rest and the need for it, for a long time. I think it is an essential.
Do you recall a radio program called "Haven"? They sang a song that went, "I've anchored my soul in the haven of rest". Heard it many times and I didn't fully get it, but I do now.
Fact: we get tired and we need rest. Our hearts get tired. We are weak creatures. We have limits.
Rest is a posture. I think we are always in need and always need to be resting in the Lord. And we especially need to turn into and onto God when we are tired. That includes feeling faint, heavy-hearted (weighted down heaviness), and just plain overwhelmed.
If you are a productive person, you need to learn the rhythm of rest.
We are weak, frail creatures who need rest. And the best rest is found in God. We practice God's presence all the time, when we do stuff, when we are out and about; and we rest in God.
Wouldn't it be great to always rest in God, as in being while doing. Manifestation is different than hiddeness, but in both places we abide; which to me is resting.
There's a paradox where God puts us in charge of things, saying, "Go, do it", but we never stop abiding or resting in him. So when we do, he does. And I think what God is after is for us to be like gloves with his hand inside.
We are dependent completely, but we must do it. And when we do it, we want to have him in us doing it through us. And this is resting in him and seeing salvation come from him through our lives.
We both "stand still and see the salvation of the Lord", and, "Take thee thy rod and strike it". You should do the right thing and repent when you mess up and you should also hear God say, "I've got this", and then participate in God doing something very special. We are neither robots nor orphans.
We are children, child-like adults, if you are past puberty; who are being given responsibility and freedom into wide spaces to explore and discover, with God, in Christ and by the Spirit. We are prone to weakness, we get tired and we rest in the Lord always and especially when we are exhausted from the times of a full life.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow and we receive comfort and sustaining grace when we suffer.
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