Rest For the Weariness

Saint Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you.”

If you’re like me, you’re up very early, getting it all packed in before you leave for work. You cram in as much as possible before your workday actually begins. You hustle throughout the day to meet the needs and expectations of your employer, your family, your community, only to return home to the hungry mouths to feed and laundry to wash, dry, fold, and repeat. It is a mountainous amount of work and a drain on us physically, mentally and spiritually. Some days we struggle just to get through it all. It’s no surprise that women everywhere are burning out, suffering from anxiety, depression, and chronic fatigue. If you couple that workload with the additional stressors of traumatic life events, like death, disease, divorce, disaster, or disruption, the level of intensity can rise to levels that seem insurmountable.

I’ve been in a season of life that has threatened to flatten me. With health issues, chronic pain, unrealistic job expectations, and overwhelming family issues, this Perfect Storm of stress in my life seems, at times, impossible to bear. At the bottom of the ditch there are days that I just don’t want to get up and keep going. The struggle is very real. But in all of this hustle and struggle, I now realize that true rest is a component that is missing in my life to help me deal with the realties of my current circumstances. That bodily desire to stay in bed may just be the exact thing my body, mind, and spirit is craving to help me repair and restore.

We labor night and day, day and night, to pack as much into our schedules as possible. We think we can never do, be, or accomplish enough, but in this massive amount of effort we have to reign ourselves in and realize that saving the world is not up to us. That is God‘s job. It is our job to be obedient to him and trust Him with the rest of it.

Proverbs 16:9 says, “In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”

God wants us to work hard, to be of service to others and to use our talents wisely. But he also wants us to realize that is He who is ultimately in control.

Colossians 3:23, “whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.“

We have to continuously remind ourselves to do our part, but to trust God to do HIS- he is the real provider, as well as a real source of rest. But, to truly rest, we must truly trust. Submitting our life, our plans, or outcomes, our to-do list, our vision boards, all to Him, allows us deep rest in knowing that the outcome of our effort is up to Him, not us.

God placed the Sabbath out there for a purpose. We are to use it wisely to restore our wholeness from a state of depletion. We are to reflect on Him, His provision and His sacrifice. Mark 2:27 says, “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” So in that craving moment where my depleted body, mind, and soul want nothing more than a nap, I want to trust God enough to listen to that. I want to give myself a break and let Him watch over my life, while I recharge my internal battery.

We want to think we are in control and when our lives have truly gone careening off-road into the ditch, it is so easy to find ourselves grasping and gasping desperately, wanting something that feels like we can hang onto. Our minds are racing, our hearts pounding, our faces flushed with the heat of anxiety coursing through our veins. But allowing ourselves to inhale God and exhale all of those worries, relaxing our bodies for a moment, is imperative in these moments of crisis. Meditating on His word, thanking Him for all His provision, showing gratitude for anything we can think of, while letting go of everything else…. if only for a few moments, can do wonders for our struggles by just trusting Him.

Allowing the peace of God to soak into us gives us hope for tomorrow. We know that with Jesus, through Jesus, because we follow Jesus, this world is temporary. There is an end in sight to the world’s troubles, no matter how hard they are in this very moment. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We are given life eternal because we believe in Him and trust Him with our lives. He has a plan to prosper us and not to harm us. So, we must, for our peace of mind, body and spirit, commit our concerns to Him. Ask God to give us peace-filled rest, so that we can rise up and joyfully do all that He has called us to do.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight .” Proverbs 3:5–6.

Just. Trust. Him.