A Time To Rest...

He said, "Come away by yourself to a secluded place and rest for a while." Mark 6:31

Deepassionate1 Speaks

Sometimes our search for our best can leave us neglecting our need for rest.
Lately, I've been feeling so exhausted by my high that I find myself feeling low.
Looking for some energy just to get the necessities done without coming undone myself. I realized that I am doing myself a disservice by adding more to my plate right now. I have to really take a step back and reevaluate my desires and goals and see what needs my attention now and what doesn't. I needed to return to my place of rest. I needed to map things out again in my WNB and see clearly the path that is currently in front of me. I have to acknowledge that I don't have to go everywhere that I am called right now. What is for me, is for me and I don't have to search anymore. I've put in the work and it is my harvest time, now my job is to rest and trust God's timing and process for my life. 

SELF WORK

For Your Writer's Notebook

Tap In:
What comes to your heart and mind when you think about "Resting"  (Create a list)

Question of the day:
Can a butterfly return to its chrysalis? 

READ
5 Reasons to Rest written by Heather Davis Nelson 
(While reading take notes of what speaks to you in your WNB. Be sure to use quotation marks to give credit to Heather.) 

1. Rest is biblical. God ordained rest in the creative order of the universe. God who is omnipotent rested from all his work on the seventh day. Did God need to rest per se? Of course not, but God knew that we would need to rest, and so he built rest into creation’s order.

2. Rest fuels our ministry. Without time to be and abide, sitting at Jesus’ feet as Mary did, we cannot continue to pour out our lives in sacrificial service. We are finite, and we reach our limits quickly. Remembering that our most important spiritual work is to abide in the vine (John 15) frees us to rest in Jesus’ completed work for us and sink deeply into his infinite love for us.

3. Rest prevents burnout. Ministry burnout has physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental components. It’s the feeling of being depleted in every area, and needing radical rest to recover. The extreme rest needed to recover from burnout is almost impossible to find as wives, mothers, and ministry leaders. Wouldn’t it be better to take breaks along the way in order to prevent burnout?

4. Rest is a way to practice faith in God’s sovereignty. When I get too busy, my practical theology becomes, “If I don’t do this, it won’t get done.” It becomes quite humanistic, leaving the power of the Spirit out of the equation and forgetting that God is sovereign even over my limits. If the work I am doing is God’s work, it will not be hindered by my rest from it.

5. Rest reconnects us to our most important relationships. These are the relationships that fuel us – that refresh us. Before my husband and I took a sabbatical, we felt very disconnected from each other. As we rested together, we realized that we had been getting lost in doing and had forgotten to reconnect with one another – the only ones with whom we are connected by a vow. This is true if you are single, too, and I would dare say, even more true. When I was in ministry as a single woman in my 20s, rest was even more marginalized and I could get lost in the busyness of my life more easily, failing to take time with my friends and roommates.
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Reflect & Take Action
What are some restful activities that you can do this week to reset your internal rhythm?