Seems like the theme here lately for myself and so many I know has been weariness and fatigue. Our lives are so busy that we just drain ourselves. We mention over and over that we need more time in the day to get things done or that we must spend our quiet time with God in the mornings because nights are out or vice versa; that we must spend our quiet time with God at night because mornings are out. Reality is that we rarely do either because we are too exhausted by the end of the day and we are too sleepy in the mornings to get up in time to spend time alone with Him. We have 24 hours in the day and we seriously make comments about there not being enough time in the day to get things done? I totally include myself in that statement. Ok well, hey, what about this?...maybe we cram too much in the day. Maybe we choose to watch too much tv or stay on the internet too long. Maybe we cart our children around to their ridiculous amounts of extra-curricular activities that we not only exhaust ourselves but them as well. Maybe we make everything else a priority over rest and quiet time with God.
Why do we think that rest can take a back seat to our lives? Why do we think we can be more productive by shoving as much into our days as possible? Is it because we think we are accomplishing more things on the checklist if we get it done? 10 things checked off verses only 5? Does that really make us more productive? As you may have guessed by now, I like to look up the definition of words I use just to have some clarity. Did you know that the definition of productive is to yield products, benefits, or profit? Great. So now I know that we are benefitting ourselves with junk on the internet and tv, in the books we read, and in the activities that we have our children to believe are priorities like sports and social clubs at a pace that makes us say that there just isn't enough time in the day or that we will just function on minimal rest. I don't see how that is beneficial in the first place much less to a point to where it makes us physically ill at times and has us so irritable and unpleasant to be around. How is it beneficial to put such emphasis on superficial materialism and self indulgence over rest and quiet time with God? Crazy thing is that we are more willing and likely to listen to a medical doctor who will most certainly tell us that rest is a necessity for healthy living, which it is, over what our Creator tell us.
What I find most interesting is the amount of professing Christians that find minimal to no time to rest, myself included. Why do I find this interesting? God has been revealing that answer to me by showing me that Jesus made time to rest and pray. Jesus made it a priority to have quiet time with the Father. Aren't we Christians supposed to be followers of Christ? Aren't we supposed to be following His example? So, if Jesus made rest and prayer a priority then why don't we?
One of the most obvious parts of scripture that comes to mind regarding rest is in Genesis where God declares the Sabbath holy and a day of rest. Genesis 2: 2-3 says By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done. God pretty much made rest a priority from the get go. Soooo....the God of the universe rested yet we think we are too important or busy to rest ourselves? Hmmm....
Ok, so let's look at Jesus. In Mark 6:31 He tells the apostles, "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place a rest a while". In Luke 5, Jesus' fame spreads and verses 15-16 say But now even more the report about Him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate place and pray. Jesus was in the midst of His ministry and performing miracles yet stopped to spend alone time with the Father. Luke 22:39-46 speaks of Jesus praying on the Mount of Olives. He told the disciples to pray so that they wouldn't "enter into temptation" and then He left them and prayed. These are just some of the parts of scripture that refer to rest and prayer. It seems to me that the bible makes it pretty clear on the importance of quiet time with the Father. I still can't get over the fact that Jesus stopped in the midst of His greatness in all that He was doing to spend alone time with God yet we are too arrogant and prideful to stop our meaningless nonsense of a schedule to have our alone time with Him. It may not be intentional pride but it is what it is.
A book I've been reading, Simple Devotion, talks a lot about just walking with God daily. That no matter how much we DO or how much we are involved in with over the top things for God, it really doesn't matter if we have zero to little prayer life. What good does it do to participate in a couple of big events a year for the Kingdom when we haven't even spoken to our God? Reminds me of Luke 13:22-30 where Jesus is being asked who will enter Heaven. Jesus' response is that MANY will try to enter but will not. They will plead and respond with how they prophesied in His name. They will be told that He never knew them. Those are pretty powerful and scary words from Jesus in those verses. Jesus says that many will try to enter and be turned away. Many?? That seems pretty probable that most professing Christians will be hearing those exact words. I'm certainly not saying that if we spend quiet time with God daily that we are saved but I think it's something worth diving into and doing a little self-reflection on our hearts desire for the Lord versus our life.
If we are too busy or tired to spend adequate time in prayer then clearly we are not getting enough down time or rest....and if we aren't getting enough down time or rest, it's probable that we are investing our time in things not worth getting exhausted over but hey, that's just my guess...
Thank you, Lord, for revealing my sin to me with truth and Your Word and I pray that You will continue to change my heart to be more of a reflection of Yours.
