What We Really Need is Rest, A Spiritual Intervention (16)

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30

Rest for the weary comes at last.

There is rest for the weary. God says,”and I will give you rest.” This gives us hope and peace in God.

Do you ever watch someone at rest, asleep, snoozing—a baby, a child, a mate? Your heart is moved as you watch them. You identify with your caring for that person. It is calm and peaceful. Real rest is that way. It is without concern or worry.

God wants us to find our rest in Him, not in circumstances, not in temporary fixes, not in things, not in money, not in fame, not in pursuits, and not in people. At times we get on a treadmill of busyness rather than finding our rest in Him. A person may never find their rest in Him, and they wonder what it means. Rest, in this context, seems to indicate a giving up, a laying down of self and wants. It is a form of peace.

But it can elude us. Some in the Christian community give up trying to find God. They find substitutes. Some get enmeshed in addictive alternatives as a way to remediate the inner emptiness rather than finding the solution in God. Again, they may not think this is possible and maybe they just don’t know how. It is elusive or not on the radar.

I assume this is common to experience. We find that discouragement or depression looks for something else to make us feel better. This is the path of least resistance, the natural, untreated path that self-medicates. And, spiritual rest is not found in friendships no matter how fulfilling and strong they may be. God is the giver of rest. He gives it to those who seek it. It is like a formula.

SPIRITUAL FORMULA: 

God + me + seeking God + spiritual growth + trust + trust + trust = spiritual rest

Spiritual rest is cultivated. It is also a result of the spirit’s peaceful state. True nurturing rest is found in God and God alone.

God is a God of tranquility and peace. He offers us soul-rest. It is a supernatural rest only found in God’s presence after His ministering grace has touched the inner places. This type of rest is in answer to the weariness of our souls, our burdens, and our hearts.

The more we seek God the more we will experience and access a state of true restfulness. It is a form of trust mixed with love that has found itself joined in a trusting relationship with its Father. It is contentment and godliness mixed together. Once you know this centered rest in the divine, life takes on a new dimension, a spiritually alive direction, a greater sense of being centered in harmony with God.

The “rest” is connected to its Source, and that source is God and His presence in you and with you. You have opened the door to your heart all the way, and He has flooded its interior, entered every room and taken up residence. You no longer withhold or erect barriers in the relationship. You have entered into full fellowship and friendship with God with each member of the God-Head, in caring connection with you and your soul.

This is God’s loving intention for us.

So soothing is rest. We all need it. The rest God gives is a deeper satisfaction. It is an absence of labor and contains a presence of peace. One cultivates it into their life by keeping a close connection to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What is the purpose of a “yoke”? The answer is coming in the next post.

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LINKS:

>Next post:  God’s A team, and you are on it:  A Spiritual Intervention (17)

<previous post:  The painful truth:  A Spiritual Intervention (15)

|<<first post:  A Spiritual Intervention

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©N. L. Brumbaugh

The Painful Truth, A Spiritual Intervention (15)

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30

Concerns, Cares, & Conflicts

We are heavy laden with cares. We are. That’s true of all of us.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden . . .

This focuses our attention on where we hurt on the inside, and it should not to be confused with what we have in God. The term, heavy laden, is representative of many components in life. These are the burdens we carry, the suffering we’ve endured, the worries we bear, the woundings we’ve absorbed, and the spiritual struggles that give mixed messages and so forth and so on.

The concerns we have for others is something else that makes us “heavy laden” and weary. There is also the non-visible threesome of emotional sabotagers that embed themselves in our beings: the presence of unhealed hurts, unmet needs, and unresolved issues. These become a part of us like a tick on a dog. They don’t leave on their own accord.

The losses and problems grow in number the longer we live. We become weary of the disappointments in life especially when we have tried so hard, given so much of ourselves to others; when we have gone above and beyond and have been faithful to God throughout it all. We wonder where He’s been? Why He hasn’t helped us out or solved the problem?

It is a good question, and maybe even a reality check. Why God didn’t answer or help in certain situations and why did He allow certain things to happen to us or to our loved ones?

The harshness of it all wars within our heads causing confusion and weariness and maybe even a measure of doubt in God’s goodness (what’s His game?). Some things really don’t seem fair. Why me? Why my family? Haven’t we been faithful? We want to blame God, or others, but we know we shouldn’t whine or question. It is then that we realize, that maybe our faith isn’t as strong as we thought it to be.

We may begin to question God’s goodness and His plan. Some people walk away and say, to heck with it,  I’ve had enough. When the test comes, we will have our litmus test as to the depth of our faith.  We will know our true selves and the state of our relationship with God. Our lack of faith or our strong faith will become evident to us when we take a true look at our spiritual side.

Is life supposed to be lived this way?

The good news is, we should be aware of our spiritual side, we should struggle when times are hard, and we should turn it over to God. Woulda, coulda, shoulda? That’s our reality sometimes. Weariness needs a remedy. The answer, our remedy, is to turn, with our weariness, to God. We can ask God for help, for strength, for the will to go on.

We access God’s loving arms as we picture ourselves leaning into His everlasting presence. We can even picture ourselves drawing strength and comfort from God the Father. We can turn to Him in that way. In the process, we begin a caring relationship that is a two-way street to a closer union.

God desires for us to bring our uncertainty, doubt, and tiredness to Him, unless it is a raging complaint like the Israelites were quite well known for uttering. We don’t need God as a magic cure-all. No, it isn’t that way at all. We need God for His offer of Himself, to be our God, and we to be His people. He is here to help us and to bring goodness out of the discouraging times. I can truthfully say, there are many times when I am unable to bear the difficulty in my own strength, but He comes along side and props me up. He will send friends and family to help or pray for me at just the right time when I need it the most.

We are three part beings. Our body, soul, and spirit work as one unit. When one area gets out-of-balance or in a weakened state, it affects the whole person. We are also mind, emotion, and will, another threesome that is one unit and that is affected by its balance or lack thereof.

If we ignore the burden, where we are “heavy laden,” it will run the show; touching every part of our being and eventually all areas of our self will be weakened. The physical, when it breaks down, also affects the rest of us. We can’t ignore our physical beings nor our emotional or  spiritual being. This is serious business. It is quite serious.

Again, we must take spiritual inventory so that we might access God’s spiritual intervention, a process through which He helps and purifies and restores and redirects, energizes, and revitalizes us in our whole person.

This is part of God’s loving intention for us. He takes the “hard stuff” and uses it to bring about the “good stuff” which means our personal struggle is a tool in the hand of God to help repair our individual spiritual selves. He knows where we need fixing and what will make us “shine” brightly. But, it is up to us to go to the mechanic.

I am so glad that God is here for us and is in the business of healing and restoring people to Himself.

It may seem fairly dismal, like a lot of work, but it isn’t. Look what comes next. We will receive rest. Spirit-rest is good for the soul. Continue on to the next post.

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LINKS:

>Next post:  What we really need is rest:  A Spiritual Intervention (16)

<previous post:  The never-ending battle:  A Spiritual Intervention  (14)

|<<first post:  A Spiritual Intervention

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©N. L. Brumbaugh