God Wants You to RestSample

God Wants You to Rest

In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength . . . -Isaiah 30:15

“I want to be important like you,” my five-year-old daughter said to me, as I frantically checked the calendar on my phone for what was next. She intuited exactly what I was embodying, and what so many of us mistakenly believe about our busy schedules. We overfill our days in hopes that we get ahead or gain a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. We live in a rest-less world that beckons us to put our hope in things and people that ultimately cannot satisfy. It’s in this very place that God invites us to reorient to rest, quietness, and trust. This is where we truly find our strength.

Rest requires faith. When we orient our lives to God’s invitation to rest, we embody the truth that we are not God. We acknowledge the reality of our human limitations, putting our faith and trust in God instead of ourselves.

Do you feel the weight of the world’s message that you have to do more, be more, and get more? In today’s Scripture, God, through Isaiah, pleads with His people to rest and trust in Him rather than put their hope in anything else. God wanted the people (and us) to realize that true security comes from trusting in Him not in our own activity or actions—even work. Instead of doing things our own way, as the Israelites did (vv. 16–17), we can repent, turn to God, and rest in His security. This is where we can find all we need, even strength.

Return to God who longs to pour into you the strength and encouragement you need to face your daily challenges. Rest is God’s gift to us, and when we obey His command to rest, we gain rather than lose.

Lisa Rodriguez-Watson

What might resting look like for you today or this week? What will it require for you to stretch your faith and trust in God enough to really rest and reconnect with Him?

God, please help me to trust You not only in my working and doing, but also in my resting and acknowledging that I have limits and am in need of You.