Rest

I have recently returned from a holiday away with my family. It is safe to say that this holiday was the most relaxing and restful 10 days of my life, and I am so thankful for that. Since returning, I believe that God has really been speaking to me and teaching me about the concept of rest. The majority of us live such stressful, fast paced lives that we feel we need to get away from everything once in a while, to experience a time of rest. Because of the pressures of our everyday lives, we often feel like we need to flee from our “real lives”. It reminds me of a verse in Psalms where the Psalmist is lamenting to the Lord. He says, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest...” It is in our human nature to want to flee from our struggles and seek out rest.

However, God really shook up and changed my concept of rest when He brought me to Exodus 33. In this part of scripture, Moses has a job; it was to lead God’s chosen people into the promised land. In this chapter we see God telling Moses that he needs to leave Sinai, where they had been stopped, and make the last trek into the promised land. But the people Moses is leading do not want to leave; they are comfortable and do not see the need for change. Here we see that Moses is obviously experiencing stress and pressure from his "job". He comes to the Lord and says, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favour in my sight.’ Now, therefore, if I have found favour in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favour in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” God hears his stresses and his concerns and replies with, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

This is huge. God met him where he was. God did not take him out of the situation and Moses did not flee from the stress. Instead, God met him in his stress and worry. And it was in the stress and worry that He promised to give Moses rest. Time and time again we see God meeting His people right where they are because He loves His people and He desires to give us rest. Perfect rest only comes from Him; it is not something we can give ourselves, and it is not even something that a break from our everyday lives gives us. Perfect rest is in His hands. He showers it on His people when we seek Him, obey Him, and offer our lives as worship to Him.

Since I have returned, I have been asking God to give me this perfect rest, in the middle of my problems and my everyday life, and He does. Because He is faithful and He is good. Experiencing the rest that comes only from the Lord allows me to really see that rest is not the place, or time, or destination. Rest is in Him. He is the rest that our souls long for.