Something that God keeps insisting on in the Bible as well as in my own life is the importance of rest. We can't function without it, yet it seems all too easy to forget it. The Jews forgot it so much that God had to command them to rest, but am I really so different? Rest was so important to God that He set aside an entire day from sunset to sunset that was supposed to be used only for resting and meditating on His word.
The way God set that up is so interesting. In Jewish culture, the day starts as soon as the sun sets on the evening before it. Saturday begins as soon as the sun sets on Friday and goes until it sets again. It doesn't change much in that it's still the same amount of time, but it actually makes a significant difference. We treat a day as being from sunrise to sunrise, but there is something very distinct between those two different models that God's been showing me. I can either go through a long day and then rest when I'm done, or I can start my day getting energized before I jump in to what I need to do. It doesn't sound very different, but to me it's a matter of mentality. Instead of sleeping because I am exhausted, I am working because I feel refreshed. I really do feel the difference between starting my day with rest versus stress. It paints the whole tone of the day. On the weekend, for example, I wake up on Saturday mornings having already had a relaxing evening and often feeling the sense not that my rest is beginning, but that it has already started and I have an entire day ahead of me to look forward to. In the same way, I feel the difference when I start my days taking time with God. A quiet time at any point in my day can be the thing that changes it from terrible to terrific, but I have found that starting my day with it has a special way of carrying me into my day in a better place. It isn't the thing I come home to at night, it's what everything I do starts from. That realization got me thinking. How often do I treat God like going to bed after a long day? God, more than sleep, is my place of true rest and recovery. However, I have been treating Him like the one to run to after things go south instead of the one I should already be in before I need protecting. If I only run to Him after I have been hurt, He turns into a doctor. Don't get me wrong, He is fantastic at it and it is His joy to step in and heal my wounds time and time again, but I realized that I've been making Him the one who patches me up instead of the bodyguard who takes the hits for me. He is just as willing and capable to be my shield as He is my medicine. Psalm 62:1-2 “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” This verse is one of many throughout the Bible that speak of God as our protector - it is one of His most prominent characteristics - but I think there is more than one way to look at what it says. 'My soul finds rest in God alone...' Rest, by definition is something we get after we have either been hurt or have expended our energy in some way, but He is not just my rest and my salvation. He has saved me and now 'He is my fortress [and] I will never be shaken.' The Psalmist doesn't say this from a place of knowing that there is a fortress he can go to if He needs it. God is the fortress that prevents my being shaken. He is my refuge in which no arrow can reach me. If I let Him be. Always the gentleman, God won't force His rest upon me, even though there are times I wish He would. The door remains wide open for me to step into His arms of love and enter into that beautiful place of rest. In His presence, all of my cares melt away and I feel the radiant beams of His love all around me, but that is a place that I have to consciously enter. It is a daily matter of laying myself at His feet and releasing my burdens to Him so that I may be free in Him. I would much rather do that at the beginning of every day and walking with Him through the rest of my day than to run to Him weary and with many days' worth of worries on my shoulders. I know what it feels like to bear such wounds before Him, and even though He is ever faithful to wash my wounds and re-build my strength, I have come to a place where I stand and say that I would rather walk offensively for the kingdom, ready to withstand whatever may come my way, than to sojourn on in a dangerous land simply knowing where the hospital is.
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Happy Holidays! I love this season and it is such a blessing to be able to enjoy it with my family this year. :) We have been pretty busy in the last few weeks and amidst that chaos there has been a pretty big change in plans. Most of you know that I've been working to raise support for the School of Illustration in Kona. I have been looking foreword to this school for a very long time now, and it looks like I will have to wait even longer. I have always trusted God to provide for me, so when the money didn't come in, I took it back to Him. I still feel like this school is ideal for the direction God is leading me and I really want to do it, but it doesn't look like I will be this year. Though it isn't what I thought I would be doing, it looks like I will be staying in California for this year and seeing if the SOI is for next January. It was hard for me to let go, but I prayed a lot about it and feel like this is what God's saying is for me in this season. I don't know what it will hold, but I am looking foreword to finding out because I know that God is with me no matter where in the world I am or what I'm doing. God has already provided the means for me to stay, too. I will be working for my dad's business and attending the local junior college as well. It helps to know that my time here will still be spent investing towards my future. So let me know if you want to hang out, because I'm in town again!
I read this verse this morning and it got me thinking. How do I approach God vs how does He say I should? I have always known that I can go to God with expectation, but do I truly come to Him with that level of confidence? I know I go to my own dad with that confidence. Just the other night, he told me to order pizza and I asked for his credit card without even a flicker of hesitation. I knew that He was going to pay for it, so when it came time to pay, I knew who to go to. I wasn't tentative or hesitant, I didn't wonder whether or not He would give it to me, and I definitely didn't assume He wanted me to pay. It's so simple, it's kind of ridiculous. It was a pretty good reminder. God is my father and He is a good one. I am still $2,830 away from my fees for the School of Illustration, but I don't need to be worried. Just like I had absolute certainty that my dad was going to pay for the pizza, I can and should have absolute certainty that He will pay for me to go back to YWAM. It's not a stretch to assume that of Him and I think He likes to see when we take that step and put it all on Him. So that's what I'm doing - putting it all on Him. I trust Him and I know that He is going to take care of me in every way. So instead of worrying, I get to be excited! =D I love art and I love God, so the thought of being able to be immersed in both for 3 months straight brings joy to my soul. This is going to be an amazingly fun adventure, no matter what it holds, because He is with me and whatever we do together is fantastic! |
ErikaJeremiah 29:11 Archives
March 2023
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