Return to
your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
Psalm 116:7
Rest is essential to bread making.
Bread dough needs to rest because we add yeast to it which is a living organism
that takes time to rise, rest, and rise again to increase in size.
What about our rest?
The beginning of a new year is
the time to get back in gear, even overdrive, right? We make lists to overfill
our already busy schedules. What about including rest on our lists? Genuine
rest—freedom from being driven, striving, and chaos. God
desires for us to rest. Guilt-free rest that we tend to resist. Though we may cease
from activity, rest eludes us.
What exactly is rest?
Vines Expository Dictionary states: “Christ’s rest is not a rest
from work, but in work, not the rest of inactivity but of the harmonious
working of all the faculties and affections—of will, heart, imagination,
conscience—because each has found in God the ideal sphere for its satisfaction and
development.” This is in sharp contrast to the burden of rule-keeping by the
Pharisees as implied in Matthew 11:29. Jesus says, “Learn from Me...and you will find rest for your souls.”
Selah is a Hebrew word used
several times in the Psalms. It signifies a place for us to carefully examine,
measure, and value the truth of the Word for personal application. It isn’t meant
as a break or a stop in the song. It’s a pause to lift up and weigh what has
just been sung. This is the idea of spiritual rest. Jesus offers rest through
His boundless grace.
This rest is possible for the
Lord has dealt bountifully with us. He loves us with an everlasting love, has chosen
us and saved us in Christ. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in
Him.
Rest.
Heavenly Father, my heart tends to wander from You. May I return
to Your rest today because You have been good to me.
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