Rest in God - yeah right!

I am surrounded by folks that seem hurried and harried. Followers of Jesus seem to be some of the worst. We even claim being tired and overworked and stressed as a badge of honor that we wear with pride! OOOOOOPPPPS!

If you hear yourself saying I'm just worn out and stressed. Red flashing signs out to be going off in your head. This does not equate with all that Jesus called us to as his followers.

The ability to rest in God is a spiritual discipline that I believe is very misunderstood. Unfortunately some believe that if you are to rest in God you have to sit like a monk and wait for God to work out every issue in your life - then at some preappointed time, aka aligning of the planets, you'll get up and live a happy stress free life.

NOT!

Help - I'm resting and I can't get up!?

Scripture tells us to find rest in Him (Matthew 11:28-30). We are also told to cast all our stresses or anxieties on Him because He cares for us (I Peter 5:7). I've been studying and praying and asking God to help me in this area. I've heard folks say in what seems a very glib way "just give it to God". So I pray and tell God that I'm giving it to Him but then can't quit thinking (in reality worrying) about it.

God has been teaching me a bunch about this.

Here are a couple of major lessons

Worry verses Worship

1. Worship reminds us who is in control.

If I am spending my time worshipping God, then I am giving glory to God and telling Him how much He means to me and how much I trust Him.

If I am doing these things in worship then I can't also worry about other issues. On one hand I'm saying "God I trust you." On the other I'm saying "excuse me God I've got to get back to dealing and stressing over some life stuff." Isn't that the double minded life that God tells us not to get caught up in? (James 1) It also leads me to think that my worship is not real because in some way I am lieing to God. Do I really trust Him? So the deal is this worry and worship are mutually exclusive.

I need to be reminded every day that God is all powerful, omni-present and all knowing. I'm like a leaky bucket - my trust drains away and so I need to be worshipping God every day to be reminded that He is the one who can handle my life better than I can.

Ok so Christians should never have things they are concerned about?

No that's not the issue. The issue is what we do with those concerns and "worries"

2. God gives effective directions.

I believe that God is a very efficient God. Worry is very inefficient! Worry is a non-active response. John 5 tells us that both Jesus and the Father are always working. If we are to be sitting and chanting - that doesn't seem to me that we are being like Jesus. But we are to efficient in what we do.

We are to give our worries to God by asking Him which ones we can do something about. Then the ones we can change, we are to obey God in what He says to do. The ones we can not change we have to quit worrying about them because there is nothing we can do.

A real big problem for me and many others is that when God shows us what we are to do about an issue, we don't like the answer and so we just sit and worry. Then sing about trusting God! OOPPS! we are lieing!

The old hymn Trust and Obey gets it right. Take some time to read it. I think you'll find the writer nailed it!

Trust that God loves you and is in control.

Obey directions He gives rather than sitting and stewing about things!

Still learning

Trent