Last week I went through a 5-day devotional from YouVersion (https://my.bible.com/ a bible app for your phone or computer) called “Making Time to Rest” I highly recommend this one and I found the reflection items to be very valuable.
One of my “take aways” was to reflect on how Jesus lived life on earth and how I can model rest around how Christ rested. (by now my wife is laughing because she knows I don’t rest well) I often relate rest to laziness but that simply is a misconception when the right motivation is in our rest. Working through this devotional as well as coming off my recent experience in Uganda I wanted to make a concerted effort to make time to rest.
So, I started digging into scripture regarding how Jesus rested.
One of the examples that really stuck out to me was when Christ met the Samaritan woman at the well.
John 4:6 – Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. (around noon)
So, after traveling with his disciples and sending them to town for food Jesus rested. Now of course I realize God is Sovern and that this meeting was meant to be in his will but think for a moment, if Jesus would not have stopped to rest, if he and his disciples would have traveled on to the next “restaurant” before stopping, would Christ have had the opportunity to meet the woman and show to her his love and salvation through living water? What is the very simple, but first thing written in this story? Jesus rested…
While I know there are other valuable lessons to learn from this story, just think about that. What are we missing when we don’t rest? What opportunities are we passing up because we don’t stop long enough to allow God to show up?
Trust me, this was me for the first month and a half of 2023 and I didn’t like it.
What opportunities did I miss and what connections did I sacrifice for my own satisfaction? What was God trying to teach me that I was too busy to see? I encourage you today, if you feel like you’re overwhelmed, if you feel like you must keep moving and producing, but you feel like the hustle and bustle is just not “filling your cup” Stop and rest, ask God to meet you in those quiet moments. You’re not being lazy or slacking off, no, you are resting to recover. This rest can and will motivate and energize you and when God speaks into it you have the opportunity to do remarkable things. Those moments are there, God is waiting, but we have to be willing to sacrifice “our” time to meet him.
Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.