Reflect:
“In returning and rest is your salvation, in
quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” (Isaiah 30:15)
Our resistance to rest is both baffling and fascinating. Who in their right mind would “have none of it?” Why in the world would we say, “No,” and run off to follow our own agendas, plans, and devices. Is it all ego? Are we so full of ourselves that there is no room for God? Are we so determined to make a name for ourselves that we would risk all in doing so? Are we so dead set on becoming a flagstaff on a mountaintop that we would sacrifice all that is good and holy to get there?
Do we really believe that we are what we do? Are we really convinced that we are who people say or think we are? Do we really believe that our worth and value are determined by our successes and achievements? Do we really believe that stopping and resting is only for the weak? It would certainly appear so.
But the truth is that in returning and rest is our salvation and in quietness and trust is our strength. It is God who determines all those things, not us. All we have to do is be who and what he made us to be. And leave the rest up to him.
Journal: Are you resistant to rest? Why? What do you do instead? How might you enter into the returning and rest that is your salvation? How might God be inviting you into the quietness and trust that is your strength? Will you go there?
Pray
Closing Prayer: Rest in God’s loving embrace today in prayer. Be who he made you to be—nothing more, nothing less.
“Come, find your rest in me today, my beloved.”
