Rest In The One Who Loves You - Know You are Beloved

“The LORD is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.” (Psalm 23:1-3, NLT)

“You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.” (Psalm 139:2-4, NLT)

“Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28, NLT)

We long for rest, a deep rest in our souls.

We have a sense that it is possible. We taste it now and again, tap into it in moments of love, acceptance, and beauty. We can experience it with friends and loved ones in those great moments of laughter and abandon. We know it exists, but it eludes us so often. Like a dog chasing its tail, we know it’s there, but we can’t grasp it. The fact that we know it’s real but out of reach only adds to our anxiety. The rise of mindfulness and the teachings around “being present” are helpful. But, as Augustine famously said in his Confessions, “Our heart is restless until it rests in you.”^a

It is to God that we must turn. It is in prayer and communion with God that this rest can be found and retained, not only bumped into but kept. It is not just okay to rest in God; it is crucial and holy.

The world is a loud, turbulent place, and often the same is true of our interior selves. We are distracted and anxious. Our attention is fleeting; we often give it to everything except prayer. Prayer is wonderfully powerful, and because of that, the world, the flesh, and the devil all gang up to keep us from it—whether through external occurrences or an internal battle in the heart or mind.

Our solution lies in God. To come back to the place of love and security. Don’t try to force the other thoughts out, but move your thought to God, to His love, and to truth. Picture it as a screen swipe on your phone: swipe up to higher thoughts, swipe up to God.

While we experience great difficulty stopping, concentrating, and giving our attention to one thing, God does not. While we find it hard to be present in the moment, God is able to give His whole attention to all things and to each one of us simultaneously. Throughout Scripture, we read about God’s attentiveness to us. For example, in Matthew 10:29 Jesus says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.”

We are known completely by God. We are the apple of His eye (see Psalm 17:8), and His gaze is never off of us. It is as we sit in His gaze that we can simply look back to Him and find that we have arrived at true stillness. Prayer is not about trying to fill your mind with God to force the other stuff out. Rather, it is an honest position, held before the One who knows us honestly. Rest in the arms of the One who loves you.

You can discover a deep rest in God.

Breathe.

Rest.