“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their (the Israelites who wandered in the desert for 40 years) example of disobedience.”   Hebrews 4:9-11

Rest is really a word that has been very foreign to me. I would have considered resting the time that I was sleeping at night. I have always felt that there has been a never-ending list of things that needed to be accomplished and then adding 3 kids to the mix…who has time to rest??? God has been revealing to me what rest really means and the importance of resting in Him. He has been training me to rest.



If I am not careful, everything that I do can be done out of the goal of being able to check it off my mental checklist. Even my time with God, at different times in my life, has received the same sort of impersonal attention. Prayed this morning…check! Read a little bit in my bible…check! Listened to Christian music…check! Prayed before bed….check! Try having a meaningful relationship with anyone when your time with them is reduced to a checklist; it just can’t and won’t work.
We are taught as Christians in most churches that our job is to do. We need to be reading our Bible, praying multiple times a day, giving thanks, serving others, helping the poor….and the list goes on. We are taught that in order to “get” from God that we have to “do”….live in his will (but first we have to find out what that is), be good, don’t sin, do the right things in order to receive his blessings, and so on. If my husband and I were “believing” God for a particular promise, we would have a mental checklist of different things that we needed to do in order to complete the “promise receiving” formula. Did we pray enough for it? Did we confess enough scriptures to receive it and cause it to happen? Did we find others to stand in agreement with us? Did we find enough people to stand in agreement with us? Have we been walking in enough obedience? Is there anything going on in our lives to keep us from receiving? Have we repented after we have committed any sins? What could we be doing wrong to not be receiving? I believe that God doesn’t lie, but why am I not seeing what His word is promising. The above questions are enough to drive you mad!

Growing up, I had wondered about the scripture where Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3-4. I feel like God has given me some insight into this scripture these past 6 months. Think about your children. Do they worry where their food will come from? No, the pantry always has something in it. They rarely think in terms of how much or how little. Do they worry how the mortgage will get paid? No, they just live their life not even realizing it could be an issue. Do they stress every time that the back door is left open at the thought of money blowing out the door with the cool air conditioning? No, they just know that the air is always cool inside. Children are pretty carefree as seen in the picture above. I believe that this is how God wants us to live towards Him….freely receiving from Him without feeling like we have to do anything to receive. This is how God gets His glory. This is how we fall so deeply and madly in love with Him. It is when we realize that we really don’t have to worry because He really supplies everything. We can relax…we can rest…we can enjoy His presence and love for us.

My husband was laid off in April of 2010. The last year has literally been the best year of our life. Due to the situation, we chose to put ourselves in a position of complete trust in God. My husband went back to school full-time, and I felt God wanting me to be at home as support for Sean and our children. We have literally had no consistent income. We did not receive any unemployment or any other government help in regards to food or living. We have not had to ask our church for help or even family members. We prayed about our future, trusted Him in the path that we believed that He had for us, and completely trusted Him for our provision. I cannot even tell you all the different avenues that He has provided for us. We moved closer to the university for Sean. We have rented a fairly large house that has been very comfortable for our family. We have been able to pay all of our bills and have had our pantry stocked full of food. We are careful with our money that He has given us, and He has sustained us. Honestly, it was a little scary at first. We knew what we were be lead to do, and we really just felt like we had no other choice but to trust Him to work out all of the details. And He has! It has truly been a miracle!

I have learned a lot about myself and many other Christians in the process. I have realized that many times we have good intentions of believing God’s Word but many times our genuine lack of trust, impatience, or feelings that we must do something creep in and cause us to take action negating God’s ability to work in our situation. We can’t give a situation over to Him only to take it back in a few hours because we think that we must do some sort of something to make it happen. This has been VERY hard for me as I am a person of action. In the beginning, we trusted and trusted down to the wire with rent and utilities. It was very tempting to want ask for help, but we held firm to God being our provision. God aways worked it out in some way. Over the last few months, we have been paying bills early…again with no jobs and my husband in school.

This post is not about being lazy and doing nothing expecting everything to be done for you. This post is about trust in Him as your small child completely trusts in you. It is about not fearing anything because you have a Father in Heaven who loves you and delights in taking care of you. Now think about your children as they grow older (or maybe even yourself as you grew older). Typically, they become more independent wanting to do more and more on their own because they think that they are capable of doing it and handling all things. As a parent, the typical response is to draw back some and let them try out their own efforts careful not to force your wisdom, resources, and help upon them knowing that when they get to the end of their rope that they will come back for your help. This is how we typically operate as Christians. We coast along doing our own thing and figuring things out on our own. When things get sticky, we may ask God for help but then we may decide that we do have a solution and go on our way. Most of us only really see God move when we are at such a point of desperation that we feel like we have absolutely no way out. We may lay flat on our face, soaking the floor with our tears, pouring our hearts out to God, and surrendering our entire being over to Him. II Corinthians 12:9 says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” It is at this point of total surrender that God’s power can and will show up on our behalf. God’s desire to be powerful on our behalf never changes…just like the desire of a parent. It is our relationship with Him and our positioning with Him in daily surrender that allows us to continually walk in His power and blessing instead of only in moments of desperation.

I am so thankful that we have a God that doesn’t change. I am thankful that He shows up when we invite Him and receive Him. My desire is to live in a complete state of rest because I know that my God has my back. Devour the book of Romans. Mediate on all that Christ has done for us. The deeper my revelation gets of the depth of the love of God for me the more faith that I have and the more that I am empowered. I challenge you to search out the depths of His love for you. Your revelations will be life changing!