Have You Ever Wondered How to Be Still?Sample

Strive to Abide

Rest has become a foreign concept nowadays; I’d even say borderline countercultural. If you’re anything like me—a young adult with raging ADHD, living in one of the fastest-paced cities in the world—you would be no stranger to the struggle of just slowing down. 

We are so used to striving. We constantly believe the myth that if we want to succeed in life and make the most of our time, we must keep striving. So often, when we go through seasons in our relationship with aGod where we just aren’t hearing Him clearly, our immediate response is, “I need to serve more, I need to give to that person, I need to worship a little harder,” - somehow believing that doing all this will make everything better. If we keep believing this lie, soon enough we will see it begin to intoxicate every area of our life, including our relationship with God. 

However, I want to offer a thought that applies to our life and especially to our walk with God;

What if sometimes the best striving we can do is just abiding? What if we dared ourselves to just slow down, to sit, to wait, to listen, to speak WITH (not just demand things) and to just abide in God? (John 15:4 NASB) What if the best thing that we can DO for God (and ourselves), is to just BE with God? 

In Luke 10:38-42 (NIV), we read the story of Jesus in the home of Mary and Martha. Quickly we begin to see a distinction between the way the two women have chosen to posture themselves. Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus. Martha is running ragged around the house, “distracted by all the preparations.” Martha is outraged: “Yo Jesus! Don’t you care that my sister is lying like a couch potato at your feet, while I’m over here busting my buns for you?!” Jesus’ response leaves her shook: “Martha, you need to chill, you’re worried about a lot of things, when only a few are needed. Mary is a good couch potato. In fact, she’s chosen the BETTER option” (my paraphrase). 

Martha opened her home to Jesus, yet she was so distracted by just wanting to do things for Him that she forgot to allow herself to just be with the very person she let in. 

Maybe we are just like Martha. We open our hearts to Jesus, we let Him in, yet so often we miss the miracle of just being with Him because we get distracted by doing so much for Him. We miss the miracle of Jesus’ transformational power, His life-altering words, the never-changing goodness of His character, His holiness, His grace. We will never take hold of this if we keep neglecting to slow down and be with Him. 

Rest is important—it is essential, it is necessary, and it is a gift. There is a reason why God makes us lay down in green pastures (Psalm 23:2). It refreshes us! 

Today, I want to encourage you to REST, to strive, to abide, to allow your being to be greater than your doing. 

· Take 30 minutes to just sit down in your favorite spot.

· Put in some headphones and turn on your favorite worship song.

· Get out a notepad, pen, and your bible.

· Ask God to speak to you.

Allow rest to transform your life (Romans 12:2)

Strive to abide.

 

Written by Nathan White