The War Against Your Rest
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first full day humans experienced was the Sabbath. God saw His creation was good & ended His week with rest while we began our existence with it. Yet, if I’m honest, my life often feels far from restful, refreshing, or peaceful.
With scripture so clear that God renews our strength, refreshes our soul, and is the Prince of Peace where we find our rest, why do our experiences often feel so different? It’s because there is a war raging against our rest.
Tori’s favorite book (aside from the Bible… haha, classic) is The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. The main premise of the book is: “If the enemy can’t make you sin, he will make you busy.” Too busy to discern the voice of God. Too busy to serve our neighbor. Too busy to pause, catch our breath, and avoid making decisions out of desperation or hurry. Too busy to rest…
So, what do we do? What’s the solution to avoid living a hurried, frantic, stressed-out life when, for many of us, the reasons for our restlessness are actually kind of important? We have to put food on the table, help our family, take care of our kids, try to pursue the will of God, take care of our bodies, do our 14-step morning routines (lol), and, on top of that, deal with the many variables life throws at us—like mental depression, financial recession, sickness, car issues, and so much more it feels like we just can’t catch a break…
It’s honestly amazing how much rest we actually do get, considering all the responsibilities and desires we have on our plates.
We won’t pretend to have it all together—we are very much in this with you. But we do have some beautiful truths to help you find rest for your soul in a restless world:
Whats #1?: I think we all would say God is our first priority, but try this practice… Instead of writing down what you wish your day would consist of, write down what it actually consists of. If God isn’t #1, it’s time to reprioritize.
Think Counterintuitively: So many times in Scripture, God worked in ways that our normal rationale would argue against. So if He designed rest to be an imperative for us, we have to trust that rest isn’t an enemy of our to-do list, but rather the life source for God’s to-do list for us! You will be able to do more when you rest more.
Stop Doing Everything: Something we remind ourselves of is that we don’t have to do everything… right now. Consider your circumstances, life stage, and responsibilities, and then start saying “no” to things that can wait. It's better to do 1-3 things well than 10-15 things mediocrely.
Welcome to Simplify September for us! We are have some deep conversations to basically do a “spring cleaning” for our lives. It almost feels like that closet, or drawer that you continually stuff “stuff” into and then things start to spill out. We are excited put some things on pause, get rid of some things, reorganize other things and even implement a better storage system for our “stuff”! Do you need to take some time to clean your life up a bit?
Thank you for being a member of the Sunday Send! We love you & remember… you are God’s masterpiece!
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These banana blueberry oat muffins were a huge hit for our family! We did 3 eggs instead of two for extra protein! here
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