| Written
by Jean Murphy
“He who dwells in
the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow
of the Almighty, I will say of the LORD, "He is
my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
Psalm 91:1-2
There are seasons in our lives where upon waking, the
demands of the day are already so heavy upon us that
we immediately feel overwhelmed and sometimes panicked
under the weight of what we need to accomplish. I think
of exams or projects due for students, sick or active
children for moms, deadlines at our work and in our
homes, the expectations of those around us, and the
list goes on. Most of us want to succeed in the demands
and expectations upon us and in fact we often drive
ourselves to succeed.
Thankfully, we don't have to take on the model of the
world, whose main helps are to organize the demands,
prioritize the demands, and to master the demands. As
I just wrote the prior sentence I realized that even
organizing, prioritizing and mastering the demands is
actually just another large task on top of an already
busy day. It is a task that may appear, in other people's
eyes, to give us the tools to master the day, but instead
it is a model that robs us of peace, joy, and puts us
on the racing treadmill of life without a stop button.
The world's model depletes us so fully that we become
dependent on outside rewards, like grades in classes,
other's praise or loving behavior to give us the positive
strokes we then use to give ourselves value.
Let's take a rest, a pause, and look at some Scriptures
to see what our wise Father desires to give each one
of us right now and how His ways work in our driven
lives. Let yourself fall into our loving Father's arms
and ask Him to speak individually to you, in your specific
situations today.
Lord,
I know You are faithful and good and able to take me
through the demands of my life today. Yet honestly,
I don't even feel as though I have the time or energy
to come to You for help to make it through today. Thank
you for forgiving me for the times I don't come to You.
Please show me the truths You have for me now and by
the power of the Holy Spirit, help me live today pleasing
you and receiving Your rest. Thank you that I can rely
on you. Amen
The Lord often speaks about rest-I
found 270 uses of the word rest in the bible . He invites
us to come to Him, we who labor and are heavy laden,
and He says that He will give us rest. (Matthew 11:28)
I'll be using an acronym to share what I found about
rest in the Scriptures and through my personal experience
as I applied these Scriptural principals. I will be
sharing four components that help us find our rest in
God.
R.E.S.T. Remain, Enter,
Seek, Trust
R--Remain
John 15:7 tells us "If you remain in me and my
words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will
be given you."
The word "remain" is translated "abide",
"dwell", "remain united in Me" and
"live" in other Bible translations. Psalm
91:1 tells us that when we dwell with God, we will find
His rest. To remain in Christ is fundamental in our
walk with the Lord and this is where we must begin in
order to rest in Christ. In John 15:5, Jesus tells us
that He is the true vine and we are the branches and
that apart from Him, we can do nothing. We are to be
like a branch with all that flows through the vine,
flowing through it. We are to have the Spirit of God
that flows through Jesus, flowing through us, enabling
us to do all things. Visually, when we look at a branch,
we see that the branch looks just like the vine--the
bark on both have the same texture and color to the
extent you really can't see where one ends and the other
begins. So too, we are to look similar to Christ to
anyone who looks at us.
One thing that helps me understand this idea of remaining
in Christ is seeing the word "remain" as a
math term and then asking the Lord to do some simple
arithmetic in my life. I prayerfully ask Him to subtract
all that needs to be removed from my life so that what
is left enables me to abide in Christ. Sometimes He
shows me that what I think I need to do, I don't have
to do, or don't have to do right now. He shows me that
some of my time is better spent in prayer and in the
Word despite the demands of my day. Through time with
Him, He helps me remove activities from my day that
don't belong there. These are often activities that
I think will help me find rest, but actually waste my
time and result in more stress. I also ask Him to remove
anything in my life that is not holy, those things in
my heart that aren’t similar to what is in His
heart. I have found when I remain in Christ; there is
a peace and strength that leads me through the day with
the Lord's priorities. John 14:9,10 says something wonderful
about remaining in Christ. We are to remain in His love.
If we obey His commands, we remain in His love. Rest
has to begin here, living in the love of the Lord!
Let's start with some simple arithmetic in your life.
Prayerfully ask the Lord to show you what needs to be
removed from your life in order for the Spirit of the
Lord to flow through you so you can remain in Him and
He in you. Begin your rest in the loving arms of the
Lord.
E--Enter
“Therefore, since the promise of entering his
rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you
be found to have fallen short of it.” Hebrew 4:1
Looking at the meaning of the word "rest"
in this Hebrew passage, we see that one aspect of the
Greek word "rest" is like a calming of the
winds(2). As we enter God's rest, the raging winds around
us are calmed. There is stillness as we enter into the
Lord's rest. "Be
still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10.
The word "enter" is a verb, and it is something
we must actively decide to do. The word "enter"
implies that there is a location that we are to enter
into. Psalm 91:1 says, "He who dwells in the shelter
of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty."
This Psalm shows us that when we dwell (Remain) in the
shelter of the Most High, we will rest in His shadow.
I love the last phrase, "we will rest in His shadow",
as it shows us how near to Him that He desires us to
be -- so near that we are in His shadow! Resting in
the Lord puts us into a closer relationship with Him.
Read Psalm 100. It helps us to know how we enter into
God's presence within this intimate location. We enter
His presence with singing, with thanksgiving, and with
praise, blessing His name.
In my personal life, I find that praising and thanking
God for who He is and what He has done cuts out a lot
of the negative thoughts and words I would normally
have while stressed. As I choose to enter into God's
presence through praising Him for His attributes, I
have to stop criticizing those around me who are causing
my stress--the unfair professor or supervisor, those
who are unhelpful around me, and all the other complaints
that I have. Oh, this horrible waste of energy has to
be subtracted from our lives! In the Lord's presence,
focusing on who He is helps us know that He is in perfect
control and can calm the raging winds.
The Lord is inviting you to enter into His presence
and find rest within His shadow. Will you enter into
His presence? Will you enter into His presence with
praise and thanksgiving?
S--Seek
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness;
and all these things will be given to you as well."
Matthew 6:33
In Matthew's account of Jesus' words, we see the Lord
teaching the disciples how they are to live. In this
great discourse, which includes the beatitudes and teaching
on prayer, He teaches them that they can't love Him
and love the world at the same time. When we love the
world and have our focus on things of the world, we
are robbed of our love for the Lord. When our lives
are stressed, our focus is usually on the details of
our lives rather than Him. Through Beth Moore’s
Bible Study, "Stepping UP”, A journey through
the Psalms of Ascent"(1), God clearly showed me
how I am to seek Him. It is through the word Coram Deo,
which means to live our lives before the face of God.
This means I am to look to Christ with a firm awareness
of both His presence and His activity in my life, day
by day, minute by minute. As I remain in His love and
enter His presence with praise and thanksgiving, I also
seek His face so that what is important to Him becomes
important to me.
As I seek His face, I almost feel our hearts become
united. I still work my hardest to do what I need to,
but when life's continual demands and interruptions
come, I am partnered with Christ in such a way that
His priorities become my priorities. I do not feel too
overwhelmed to reach out to others when they have a
need. I am not frightened of the unknowns or the pressures
in my life, that I forget God is my refuge and my fortress.
The winds around me may howl, but the winds within my
heart are calm. In stillness and calmness, seeking Him
as my first desire, my heart is truly aware of His love
for me personally.
The Lord is asking that you seek Him first, that you
seek His face and live Coram Deo. Is there anything
in your life that you think is more important than the
Lord? Is there a situation in your life that you have
forgotten He is involved in working out with you? If
so, confess it to Him and ask Him to do a little more
subtraction and become first in your life. Seek to live
with the awareness of His presence and His activity
in your life as you seek Him and live Coram Deo.
T—Trust
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty, I will say
of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."
Psalm 91:1-2
The final, yet certainly one of the most important components
of rest is trusting God. We previously looked at verse
one of Psalm 91, but now we focus on the verse two.
The psalmist continues on to say, "I will say of
the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my
God, in whom I trust." To trust means to be confident,
sure, safe and secure. Trusting is more than a feeling;
it is knowing that whom we have given our trust is worthy
of it.
I find that knowing God is trustworthy grows naturally
out of what we have already discussed: Remaining
in Christ, Entering into His presence,
and Seeking His face. Trust
in the Lord grows as we live out our choice to obey
the Lord in the small and large aspects of our lives.
Trust grows as we choose to enter into His presence
with praise and thanksgiving; as we praise Him for who
He is and thank Him for what we have seen Him do in
our lives. Trust grows as we seek to live within His
presence and with His activity forefront in our lives.
Let me summarize R.E.S.T. by sharing how I saw my daughter
learn to rest in Christ. When she was taking her SAT
exams, she studied diligently and took the exam twice.
Her two scores were quite good, almost identical in
fact. They were certainly good enough for the university
she had chosen. Her dad asked her to take them one more
time. She didn't want to take the test a third time,
but she did so in obedience to her dad. We prayed before
this test just as we had the prior two times. We asked
the Lord to enable her to get the score she needed in
order for Him to take her to the place and the work
where she could enter into His purposes for her life.
She was resting in the Lord's power and wisdom and purpose
in her life as she prepared to take the exam again.
Her third exam results came in and she had improved
by an astonishing 200 points. Upon seeing her scores,
she said, "The Lord did this, not me. I must need
this score to open the door where He can use me to serve
Him."
The Lord used these higher scores to open the door into
a specific program within the university where she was
to attend. As she kept looking back and praising God
for this enabling, I saw her take all her exams without
the stress I would have expected. She was Remaining
in Christ, being obedient to Him. She was Entering
into His presence with thanksgiving and praise. She
was Seeking His kingdom as she loved
Christ and focused on living in the presence of the
Lord. She was Trusting God because
she was confident, sure, safe and secure in her knowledge
of the Lord and His faithful ways in her life.
Do you trust God to enable you to accomplish what He
needs you to do today, so He can open the doors He has
for you tomorrow? By this I mean do you trust that He
will enable you to earn the grade you need to receive
on your next exam? Do you trust that He will go before
you and help you land the job that He can use to mature
you for His purposes? Do you trust Him to lead and provide
in the friendships and relationships He has for you?
Do you trust that He will get you through today in such
a way that He can accomplish all He wants to do in your
life?
When the demands are great, we need to fall into the
arms of the Lord and R.E.S.T. Go ahead, jump off the
treadmill of life and fall into his loving arms and
receive His rest, His love, His peace and His joy.
Works Cited:
* All scriptures used unless otherwise noted are taken
from the NIV translation.
1. Moore, Beth "Stepping UP, a journey
through the Psalms of Ascent" (Page 99)
2. Thayer, Jospeh H. Thayer’ Greek-English Lexicon
of the New Testament, Peabody: Hendrickson Publising,
1996.
|
