Ah, Rest! God’s A God of Rest!

“Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.”

Psalms 16:9

Ah, yes! Rest!

This painting, entitled by “Rest At Harvest,” William Adolph Bougeareau captures the spa “ahhhhh” of it all, doesn’t it? Ah, yes! THIS is the life, the epitome of relaxation.

Wouldn’t you love to be in this frame of mind? Me, too! Yet it seems that we are bombarded with noise, distraction, stress and screaming voices (often coming from ourselves). There is, therefore, no spa, no rest, at harvest, or any other time, for that matter!

A lot of us out there aren’t so hot about the issue of rest, if we’re honest about it. We’re driven, under pressure, fast paced, ambitious, whatever you want to call it. Rest isn’t encouraged or deemed as a great, successful character trait in a typical day to day setting. Add stress, complicated life issues, disordered eating and addiction patterns to the mix and frankly, forget about embracing any kind of nurturing spa situation! It ain’t happening.

But rest is Godly, even going back as far as Creation:

“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.”

Genesis 2:2

 One thing I’ve noticed in doing a study on rest scriptures, is that the word, “restore” is not far from it as well.

“He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.”

Psalm 23:3

God is in both the “resting business” and the “restoration business.” So, if we’re stressed out – about anything- then maybe we need to ask ourselves the question,

“Are we doing  rest or restoration business with God?”

“And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety. Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee.”

Job 11:18-19

God is not overwhelmed by us, by our lives. He’s a God of Creation, yes. But He is also a God of compassion and rest. He is NOT a slave driver!

So why should any of us be as well?

Can you rest, right now, here? If the answer is no, are you the cause of the turmoil?

 God has your life; He has you. He’s handling it. What if, right now, even in spite of everything, God wants you to rest?

Let’s all quit trying to control everything by acting like God. We do a lousy job of it, anyhow. God is God, at least, last time I checked.

God has told us not to fear…

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.”

John 14:1

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

John 14:27

I’m not saying that it’ll be easy to let everything go and lounge like this woman in the painting here. But God has a God-sized Victory, control and power over it, whatever it may be: problem, issue, recovery, life, stress, you name it!

So, let’s try, just try to take a spa rest (hay and field setting, optional).