For the last couple of months, I’ve been learning how to rest. I found myself in a state of constant busyness, which isn’t all too bad when you’re in a healthy place, but it can lead to chronic stress when you don’t take time to recover.
I realized how quickly I turn to self-care, self-help, self-discipline, and self-improvement. These seem good and helpful until you notice yourself turning to them quicker than to the Lord. As I learn to rest, I often heard (and hear) the Lord inviting me to come to Him instead of “self.” To let Him take care of me, help me, discipline me, and improve me.
And it’s funny, because I’m learning that I don’t have to come with anything other than myself. He doesn’t expect us to conjure up a “put-together” look or feel, but just to come as we are, even if it’s empty, weak, and messy, so that He can fill us up. His power and strength are made perfect in our weaknesses. But if we can’t submit our weakness to Him, where does His power flow?
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
John Lubbock
It’s also funny to realize that this isn’t a new lesson for me. I looked through several journals and social media captions from a couple of years ago and found similar notes about learning how to rest and how to be. I wonder if it’s a lesson I’ll ever learn? How many more times will I have to repeat it? Will this be like a “thorn” in my side as I go through various seasons of life?
Week after week, the Lord removes one thing at a time from my grasp. In the most gentle way, with kindness and mercy, He helps me realize (after the fact, of course) how much I relied on little things like planners, to-do lists, calendars, and even “project” pages instead of Him. I “say” I trust Him, but do I trust Him enough to lay them down? Do I actually let go and let God? (Apologies for the cliché saying).
With each moment of realization, He leads me into rest, beside still waters and green pastures where I can simply be and abide in Him.
The process of renewal has been prevalent, as I take off one thing at a time with the Lord. I didn’t realize it until recently that when you rest you actually reset. When you rest, you get renewed. When you rest, you recover and take up Jesus’ yoke, which is easy to carry.
And I want to get good at doing that. Simply resting. Simply being. Simply letting the Lord lead me into transformation through renewal, because it’s His doing. Not mine.
We will always go through busier seasons, but there’s time to rest, renew, and reset no matter what. His doing becomes your place of rest and security, and as a result, everything you do is from a place of peace, rest, security, and trust in Him.
Do you struggle to rest? How do you do it?
Do you recognize a “repeating lesson” throughout your life? If you’re comfortable with it, please share below ❤
tanyaremkiv 
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