Rest In Him - Rachel Das
Our God longs for a personal relationship with us. He does not want a master-slave relationship or robots that roam the earth and do what He has instructed - His heart is for intimate relationship with His children. God’s desire is to walk with us through life and guide us and teach us how to live life well.
In all that we do, we are supposed to have peace, joy and strength. We all go through times when we are feeling drained and feeling weak. If peace and joy has left you, God wants you to return to a place of peace, joy and strength in every area of your life.
Whenever I am struggling or not walking in the peace that God has promised us all - I know that something is not right within me! God doesn’t change! His promises and His word never change - so I know that means something inside of me is out of order. Something in me is not aligned, something in me is hindering and blocking the flow of God. I like to ask myself - what is interfering with the peace of God in me?
“The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:27-30 (MSG)
Come as you are
What causes us to feel tired, weary and drained? Maybe it's pride, or us pretending to be someone we are not. Maybe we come to church and are putting on a mask - let's be honest we all do it sometimes. But that's exhausting! So many of us do that in different areas of our life, we hold up a mask and pretend to be something that we are not. That can cause us to feel drained and tired.
God wants us to put down the mask! Be real and come to Him as we are. There is an invitation from our Heavenly Father, to put down the mask and come to Him as we are. It is not just to come when we are weary but it is a daily invitation of doing it together.
It takes courage to come to Him! It takes courage to admit that we are struggling and humility to come to Jesus - but He promises to give us grace when we come to Him with humility.
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6-8 (ESV)
Let’s be real and come to God as we are!
Take a real rest
Often when we are tired, we turn to things to find rest - but all of that is temporary. We find satisfaction in things like Netflix, unhealthy relationships, alcohol or other addictions. This gives us a few moments of relief - it only gives us temporary satisfaction. But when you come to the Father He will give you real rest.
When God talks about rest it is like a reset - it’s not taking a break and giving up on the race. I like to think of it as a pitstop that we see in the Grand Prix. We see the cars pulling into the pit during the race - but the race isn’t over! It is only a momentary break to get things in order.
Finding our rest in God is like that - when we find rest in Him - we get refuelled, recharged, refocused - and then we’re ready to race again! Resting in God is a reset and something we need to do every day! It's a walk with Him rest and a realigning kind of rest that the Father is talking about.
God wants to teach us how to walk this life and He wants to journey with us every day.
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:29 (NIV)
Whatever is going on in your life, whatever difficulties you are facing, whatever situation you are struggling with, God knows what you need to get you through it.
Come to Him and find rest in Him.
Listen to the podcast here: Rachel Das - Rest in Him - 21 July - Perth
Preached and written by Rachel Das
Rachel Das is married to Kevin and they have four beautiful children. Rachel is on team at Kingdomcity in Perth.