Learning to Rest

Today I watched two of our children try to drown themselves. The swim instructor and I both know that if they will relax and just lie still on their back, they will float. Or, if they will relax on the water and stroke slowly, they will go much farther than when they flail. It was physically painful for me to watch my children flounder, struggle and fight, when I know swimming doesn't need to be nearly so difficult.

Tonight I spent an hour in the car. Alone. God spoke to me. That is what I look like to Him. I struggle and fight and find myself drowning in the cares of life. My God knows that it will be much easier if I just rest and let Him handle them. It was a vivid picture to me. Why do I struggle so much against the things I cannot change? Why do I have such a hard time just letting God handle it? Why do I make life more difficult than it needs to be?

Rest. This is the message God keeps trying to get through to me. Just rest and let Me handle things. It is one thing to say it and another thing to actually do. How do you rest and trust while you handle the many demands of life? This is something God wants me to learn.

I am coming to the conclusion that God's rest is not necessarily a physical rest, though I wish it was. But, rather a mental and spiritual rest in the midst of the chaos and demands of life.

While God was bringing these thoughts to my mind, I had the radio on. The person on the radio read something from a devotional. I don't remember it verbatim, but it started with the word, "rest!" (Yes, God was definitely speaking.) The devotional was as if God was talking and saying something like, "You've had a hard week. Life is difficult. You need to not worry about tomorrow or the past, but look at Me right now." Perhaps that is the very definition of rest.

Resting in the arms of Jesus, is after all, the best place to be.

Matt. 11: 28-30
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."