Mercy Like Morning: A 7-Day DevotionalSample

Rest While You Wait

In Mark 6, Jesus invites his apostles turned travel-weary missionaries to go with Him to a solitary and deserted place to rest awhile. Not for long. A small amount of time—just enough to catch their breath and then get back to work again.

But by the time they arrived, five thousand people were there waiting for them. And a miracle was about to go down - one of divided and devoured fish, of broken and multiplied bread loaves. But first, they rested.

Today, thanks to the retelling of it in the gospels, we have the luxury of knowing how that story ends. But at the time? The disciples didn’t. All they knew was that there were a lot of people and not much food, and they needed a miracle to happen. Luckily, they didn’t have to wait long. Jesus broke the loaves and divided the fish and the rest is history.

But what happens when the miracle doesn’t come right away and the wait drags on?

Take a peek at Psalm 37:3-7.

Sometimes, there is rest in the waiting because there’s nothing else you can do but rest and wait and feed on His faithfulness like those multiplied bread loaves.

If you dig into the Hebrew word that’s used for rest, you’ll find a cross-reference to the Noah story and the flood and the dove without a resting place for her feet. It’s easy to assume that the flood only lasted for 40 days. But really, the rain only lasted that long. It would be another 335 days before the flood waters subsided and the family walked off that ark.

Imagine—almost a year of wanting nothing more than to stand on dry ground, waiting for the lessons to be learned and the message to be a memory. But all they could do was rest in the wait. They had no other choice but to rest on God until that ark rested on that mountain.

And then, when it finally did, they walked right on out of there with an olive leaf in hand and a rainbow in the sky and a mighty, miraculous story to tell.

So today, if you’re feeling tested in anticipation of a miracle, choose instead to rest with God. And remind yourself of Charles Spurgeon’s timeless words: “Time is nothing to Him; let it be nothing to thee.”