Rest

Psalm 62:5
Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.

I got an e-mail from a dear friend in regard to passionately pursuing God. She was refreshed and relieved that she finally felt as though she could stop doing and striving. She is suffering from exactly what I tend to suffer from - I think we all do at some point - we get so focused in on the doing and achieving that we lose our focus on Christ. We forget why we’re doing and how we’re achieving. It becomes all about ministry and study and serving, and we forget the love and delight.

My response to my friend was that she needed to give herself permission to rest. I think there are seasons in our lives when we need to just stop, and let God fill us. We need to stop our frantic studying, serving, praying, et al and just let God minister to our souls, let Him pour His soothing balm on our weary hearts, and just bask in His glory.

What a relief! It is not often that we hear that it is OK to just stop for a little while. We can read our Bibles, if we desire, or we can just sit and think on God and all that He is. It is good to take a walk and instead of feeling as though we have to get through our massive prayer list, we can simply have a casual conversation with God. We can delight in Him, as He delights in us.

I believe that we must take the time to let God minister to us, fill us, heal us, and give us rest. It is only when we are full of Him that we can truly minister and serve as we should. All our striving and serving and doing should simply flow out of our delight in God - an overflow of His love in us.

Is this something that you need? Is your soul weary and tired? Perhaps you need to give yourself permission to just soak up all that God has to offer. To simply rest in Him, not feeling as though you have to get up right back up and start going again. To give yourself a break from your spiritual "to-do" list - it will still be there tomorrow. This season will look different for each of us, but I think it is good that we know that it is OK to simply take some time to renew and refresh our relationship with Christ - much like a marriage retreat. It keeps the relationship strong, and grows us deeper in a way that striving and achieving never can.