How to REST when Life is Chaos
We are living in a time that can be easily described as unrest. There is turmoil all around us but I believe God‘s people should be marked with a restful peace that God is still on the throne and he is in control.
I know it’s countercultural because everything is saying “go go go” or “fix fix fix,” but I believe the true answer lies in finding the true rest that can’t be secured with our own hands. But only found in the hands of the One who created them.
It is wound in the DNA of all creation after all. God created for six days and then He rested. I don’t believe it’s because He needed the rest. I believe it’s because it’s a balancing law within the very fabric of Creation. God knew we would try to take things into our own hands so He modeled to us the need for rest. And ultimately our need of resting in Him. Jesus modeled it as well… We’ll talk more about this but He often was running off to find rest both physically and spiritually.
So let’s look at four components we can walk through to find true rest in Him:
R - Release
“God, I surrender…”
It sounds cliché to say let go and let God but really that is the first step. We will not find rest as long as we hold on. Releasing control allows us to take hold of peace. Taking your hands off the wheel gives the space for God to have full control. I always say you can only cling to one thing at a time. As long as we clamor and grasp at the controls we can never find true rest.
Paul said in Philippians 4:6:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Anxiety is produced by a false sense of control. As long as we hold onto it, there’s a certain amount of fear and anxiety that will linger with us. Peter records the same thing in 1 Peter 5:7 saying:
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
Jesus may have been the first to talk about it in Matthew 6:25-37:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
Even the sparrows are taken care of and we are much more valuable than them. Fear, worry, anxiety… aren’t these exactly the opposite of rest? So, where worry and anxiety would say I must hold on to control, to find rest means to say, “God I surrender.”
E - Expect
“God, You are faithful…”
In the classic Psalm 23, God is described as the ultimate shepherd. Shepherds provide. Shepherds protect. Where sheep are utterly helpless, the shepherd always comes through. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Those sheep have needs and dangers all around them. They can always count on and expect the shepherd to be faithful.
Jesus said in Matthew 11:28:
“Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.”
It is right to come to Him expecting that He will give because when we are yoked with Him, there is rest. He is faithful. It’s when we come out from under that yolk that we bear the weight on our own. As long as we are yolked with Him, we can rest easy knowing that He will fight for us. So instead of living under the fear and anxiety of the unknown, rest in His promises and say, “God, You are faithful.”
S - Selah
“God, I wait on You…”
Selah appears 74 times in the Old Testament. It’s originally thought to be an instrumental term but it means to pause and reflect. Right there is one of the issues… when was the last time you just sat and waited on the Lord? No music, no words. Just waited in anticipation of what He had to say? Or even more just waited to wait on Him? I almost called the “S”… “Stop Striving” based out of Psalm 46:8 that says:
“Be still and know that I am God.”
Some versions translate it, “Cease Striving and know that I am God.” I do believe this is part of what causes unrest in our hearts. It’s an unwillingness to be still and know Him. But it also ties into the first point…to release control. We must cease striving but there’s a broader image that I like in this word “Selah”. It’s intriguing to me that in written music Selah would probably involve “rests” musically. So there is a need to cease striving but on a broader level even, a need to pause and reflect and wait to attain rest. So Selah is to say, “God, I wait on You…”
T - Trust
“God, I put my trust in You…”
Rest really is a byproduct of faith, birthed out of actively trusting in the Lord. I guess that’s why peace is a fruit of the spirit and faith is not. Peace and rest are birthed out of active faith. So the last component is taking steps of actively trusting in the Lord, even in unrest. This is where the fruit of the Spirit appears. When we trust through the Spirit, the result is peace and rest. Isn’t that clearly displayed with Jesus in the boat sleeping in the middle of a storm? All the disciples are freaking out and Jesus is resting calmly as though the waves aren’t even there. Now I understand, we may not be Jesus who can calm all the theoretical “storms and waves” in our lives, but we still serve a God who most certainly can. So Trust is to say, “God, I put my trust in You…”
This isn’t meant to be a formula. Not a four step checklist that you can run through to find rest. But my hope would be that it’s a simple, easy to remember, reminder that rest is within our grasp. A reminder to release control. A reminder to cling to God‘s faithfulness. A reminder to pause and wait for God to fight for us. A reminder to trust once again and allow God‘s peace to flow out of us in the rest the only He can give. Rest is not contingent upon the circumstances around us, it’s reliant on “who” we are relying upon.
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