Finding Rest in a Restless World

In the still small quiet hours of the morning, when no one is awake but me and I’m left with myself and my thoughts, I wonder. 

I wonder what I should be doing. Tackling the house? Working out extra early? Soaking in the tub? Sneak out and get coffee at Starbucks… it is after 5 after all. 

The key is SHOULD. That word that makes me feel guilty at every turn. There’s always a hundred different things I COULD be doing. And it’s hard for me to choose in any given moment what the priority is.

I’m training for the Shamrock half marathon. Working out 5 days a week. 3 days of High Intensity Interval Training. 2 days of walk/running.

But on a Sunday the one day of rest… what should I do? What rests my soul? What refreshes my spirit? What renews my energy? What recovers my body?

So I look to the Lord. The giver of all good gifts. Psalm 127:2 (NIV) states, “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.”

The striving in me needs to shut down and quiet my soul and be still.

Matthew 1:28 also reminds me, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

I long for rest. True rest. The kind that brings refreshment. The kind that builds up. The kind that restores my soul.

He is the giver of life. 

My anxious toil can cease because He cares for me. Every good and perfect work is finished in Him. I don’t have to take the world by storm for He overcame the world and I can rest in that. 

Breathing a little lighter I know that whether I can fall back asleep or whether I tiptoe from under the covers and start my day that I belong to Him who lived perfectly. I can rest in His excellent work. 

I can be confident like Philippians 1: 6 shares, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

I don’t have all the answers and I don’t even know what my soul needs today…. but my God knows. So I will rest in Him and hear His still small voice showing me the way to walk in. After all He is a giver of good gifts. Matthew 7:11 reminds us, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

I hope you can find some rest today. Whether it be physical sleep like an afternoon nap or coloring in your adult coloring book. Whether it’s a cup of hot tea with a good book or some deep yoga stretches. Maybe you get an extra long time to read His Word. May you feel His goodness for you today and take time to recover from the week. 

And those of you with little ones I know that it’s easier said than done. He sees your every good work: changing the 100th diaper, sweeping up the cheerios, soothing a toddler’s tantrum. You are precious in His sight.  You are not forgotten dear sweet tired mothers… He has engraved you on the palms of His hands.

Isaiah 49: 15-16 says, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget,I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”

So as we go about with the busyness of the season of Christmas let us also be reminded to stop, breathe, and rest. Let us come closer to the One who came close to us. Who took on flesh and dwelled among us, our Emmanuel. O Come Let us Adore Him! Let us worship Him with a restful heart today.