Join us Sundays at 11:00 am for worship!

Intentionally Resting

Devotional 3.1.23

Dear Faith Family, 

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him, (Psalm 37:7). 

Ahh, Cape Cod.  The wooden steps welcomed my tired feet.  A left at the top of the attic staircase dead ended in a small bedroom with a window facing the ocean.  A rhythmic, rolling rumble came to a crescendo as one wave after another gently crashed onto the beach. 

A thunderstorm quietly announced its approach from a distance.  As it made its way to the sleepy cottage, I crawled into the bed by the window.  I disappeared into that soft, comfortable mattress.  Sleep was almost instantaneous!  (I hope you’re not reading this at the office!)  Has to be the best nap I’ve ever experienced! 

Context: Grandma lived alone in the cottage at Cape Cod.  Grandpa was absent from the body and present with the Lord.  My parents and I drove Grandma back after a visit to SC.  We were tending to the “needs” around the cottage.  After a busy day we planned to go out to supper.  Worn out we knocked off before supper.  And thus, the weary ascension up the attic staircase. 

David was no stranger to weary.  He wasn’t safely quarantined from evildoers.  Have you heard about Goliath?  Saul?  Absalom?  Or even David himself?  In the face of adversity, David calls us to rest.  Rest?!  Who can rest in this dog-eat-dog culture?  Who has time to rest with home, and school, and work, and sports, and band, and dance, and vacation, and graduation, and…?!  I’m getting tired thinking about it! 

Psalm 37:7 delivers the key to rest.  It is found where?  In the Lord.  True rest comes when we disappear in His enveloping arms.  This world, this life are certainly capable of producing weary (even worry or anxiety).  To be enveloped by the Lord is to begin to understand His love and His power and His knowledge.  All three are completely His. 

Rest isn’t always a cessation of activity.  It is a firsthand, real-life relationship with the living Lord.  It is an understanding of who He is and that He can be trusted with your world.  I suspect that kind of trust isn’t developed at a distance.  Rather, it is carefully nurtured in the context of personal relationship.  Time is the required investment.  Yes we need to invest time listening to Him, His Word.  Yes we need to invest time talking to Him.  Yes we need to spend the day with Him.  Resting in Him is doable even in the face of adversity. 

Intentionally resting in Him, 
Pastor Karl