Time for a Rest!

When I got up this past Saturday morning it was a cool 43 degrees; the coolest morning yet for this fall season. I had just put a new set of tires on the old mountain bike so I decided to try them out! I had not been riding on the trails since spring, so I was somewhat out of shape. I was almost immediately rewarded for my early rising efforts by the sight of a really nice white tail buck. I stopped when I first saw him and watched him walking through the woods until he went out of sight. In spite of the numerous hills, I made it to mile three before I took my first rest stop. So far I had managed to keep the bike up on two wheels without any mishaps but I was exhausted! It was still in the 40’s and even though I was dressed in some cutoff jeans and a short sleeve shirt, I was almost totally wet with perspiration. When several joggers passed by, I was surprised that they did not ask me if I needed help! After about five minutes I seemed to revive and started up the path again. I only made it about another half a mile before I stumbled to another rest stop. This time it took about ten minutes before I felt revived and was able to continue the ride back to my house. The last one hundred yards was an eight story climb out of the canyon up to my house. By the time I reached the top I was barely able to stand. I had to take another ten minute rest to get up enough energy to wash the mud and dirt off of the bike and me. I was totally exhausted but felt really good after my workout!

Even the squirrels need a rest once in a while!

Just as our physical body gets tired and weary and needs to rest, so does our spiritual body or soul. The Bible gives many examples of things that cause our soul to become weary and tired. Sin in our lives can really take away our spiritual strength quickly. In Psalms 38 David says “neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin”. In Hebrews 12, Paul instructs us to lay aside the “weights” in our lives. These “weights” are not necessarily sins, but are things that can “weight us down” or hinder our spiritual life, such as hobbies that take up a lot of our time! Proverbs 29:9 says that “If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest”. Have you ever noticed how drained you feel after a long argument with someone? Sometimes we even get weary doing the good things, as Paul talks about in Galatians 6 and admonished us to: “not be weary in well doing”.

So we understand that our soul gets weary and tired, but how do we give our soul the rest it needs to restore its strength? The famous 23rd Psalm talks of the Shepherd “restoring” our soul. Webster defines “restore” as renewing, rebuilding, or to put back into a former state. God will restore our soul if we allow him to be our shepherd and obey his word. If we have sinned or disobeyed God’s word we need to remember 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us”. Hebrews 12 talks about “laying aside” or getting rid of the “weights” that restrict our spiritual life. Sometimes we need to rearrange our schedules so that we have time for church attendance and our personal prayer time. In Matthew 11 Jesus says “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. We can get closer to Jesus by spending more time in prayer. Jesus can help us and make our spiritual burden easier to bare. This prayer, or communication with God, strengthens our soul, as David learned in Psalm 138 “In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul”. Finally, Isaiah chapter 40 says that “they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength”. Sometime when we are doing everything right and still get weary, we need to just wait upon the Lord and watch him work in our lives!