Greetings! BlogFam, REST
is a good promise. And if I were a
betting person, I would probably win the bet that you have never considered
rest as a good part of God’s promise to us.
When we celebrate the promises of God as recorded in the Holy Writ, we
most often celebrate the kind of promises that we believe will bring us the
physical healing, financial breakthrough, or the social promotion that we want,
need, or just secretly desire. We might
be grateful for the rest we get when we go to bed at night or from the cat naps
we take during the day, but to think of rest as a promise fulfilled by God just
might be a new way to begin to think of rest. The
instruction for God’s people to rest on the Sabbath, the seventh day,
throughout the Old Testament, just might be a promise couched in words of
instruction because the good Lord knew we might underestimate its value in our
lives. We all need rest. We all need the kind of rest that soothes and
rejuvenates us from the inside out. We
also need the kind of rest that stills the drama we encounter on the outside,
in our various human interactions.
Friends, we all need rest. We all
need to take the time to rest so that we might take advantage of this good
promise of God. We all need to take the time
to rest and possibly re-imagine the benefits of rest as God’s fulfillment of a
promise to us and not just a command that we have to get through to get to the
next thing, the next day, or the next moment. Rest
is a good promise. It is a God promise
that we too often neglect and the consequences of such neglect we can feel
immediately or once the lack of rest hits us like a ton of bricks down the
road. Rest
is a good promise. It is a God promise
that we need to receive as a blessing that prepares us to face life’s
challenges and as a break from life’s complications. Rest
is a good promise. It is a God promise
that reveals God’s love for us in a different kind of way – compassionate,
gentle, and peaceful. It is Shalom. May
the Lord of our rest be praised! As soon as
Solomon finished praying and making these requests to the Lord, he got up
from before the Lord’s altar, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out to
heaven. He stood up
and blessed the whole Israelite assembly in a loud voice: “May the Lord be blessed! He has given rest to his people Israel
just as he promised. He hasn’t neglected any part of the good promise he made
through his servant Moses." (1 Kings 8:54-61) Friends, when the Lord allows you the space to be
still, to rest in Him, He is taking care of you in ways that you might not even
realize. He is taking care of you in
ways that go beyond the physical. God is
taking care of you in ways that should cause you to bless his name! I pray that on today you would see rest as a promise
of the Lord and not just a command. I pray
that you would embrace all of its benefits and not feel as if you are being
slighted just because you took a break to do so. I pray that you would begin to bless the Lord
for every time you get to rest and that you would see your rest in Him as a
gracious and tremendous fulfillment of God’s promise to you. Lastly, I pray as Solomon prayed - May the Lord our God be with us, just as he was with our
ancestors. May he never leave us or abandon us. May he draw
our hearts to him to walk in all his ways and observe his commands, his laws,
and his judgments that he gave our ancestors. And may
these words of mine that I have cried out before the Lord remain near to the Lord our God day and night so that he may do right by his
servant and his people Israel for each day’s need, and so that
all the earth’s peoples may know that the Lord is God. There is no other God! Now may you
be committed to the Lord our God
with all your heart by following his laws and observing his commands, just as
you are doing right now.” May you embrace your rest as a promise fulfilled by
the Lord our God! GOD LOVES YOU and I DO TOO! Delesslyn |
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Categories#100PoundsOfExcuses#FREEFlowFriday #iThrive #LentInAugust #TheAffirmation #TheSHIFT 2012 End of Year Reflections 3:17 40 Days of Fasting A NEW DAY!!! 8-1-2012 A Proverb A Day Keeps the Foolishness At Bay AFTER He Rose! Best Practices COPYRIGHT - Permissions Policy Cover Up! CROSS-Eyed Decisions. Decisions. Decisions. Disciples Dos and Don'ts G.R.A.C.E. GAIN SOME WAIT!!! GET A CLUE...About Me HOME is Where YOUR Heart Is HOPE & HEALING HOPE! INTRODUCTION Isaiah Reflections John 3 MY VISION FAST NEW YEAR, NEW LOVE NOT SO RANDOM THOUGHTS ONE WORD REST. Period. Saying Goodbye Starting Over Starting Fresh STEP OUT OF THE BOAT - Matthew 14 The EIGHTH Day The EIGHTH Day 2 The Good Samaritan The KEY of LOVE The Living Room Christian Fellowship The POWER to be PERFECT! The Prayer Bridge Things We Left On the Mountain! VISION Wholesome Habits of Healthy Disciples WWJD = What Would JUSTICE Do? |
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