Pursuing God's RestSample

Your Promise From God Will Manifest As You Rest In God

Words and promises from humankind in the world prove very fickle. People change their minds quickly, today people will love you, tomorrow they may hate you and so living our lives based on the promises of men is a big set up for failure and disappointments. One thing we can rest in is the Word of God, he is good on his promises, and he never disappoints. I have learned to trust God’s Word more and more as I grow in my knowledge of him and I teach others to lean on his words and not man’s. God seems to love to work in cycles, and one of the prominent cycles we observe in the Bible is cycles of sevens; seven days in a week, seven-year Sabbaths, seventy years of captivity, etc. Doctors observe this seven cycle, they usually say, “A virus will run its course in seven days,” I guess God loves the number seven and I am happy with that.

I love searching out the scriptures for God’s promises and staying on them until I see God move to answer those promises. One promise I love in the Bible is, “I have found your word, and it is health and healing to all my flesh” (Proverbs 4:22 NIV). And in the book of Isaiah God specifically, talks about the blessings one will enjoy if they consider resting as Holy. (Isaiah 58: 13- 14)

Even as I am writing this plan, I am in a place of forced rest due to an inflamed inner ear, as a wife, mom, pastor, author and teacher I find it hard to rest. I actually feel guilty when I take moments of rest because I was tricked into believing I am wasting time when I rest. But being sick for the past couple of weeks has brought to my attention I may be disobedient to observing the Holy day of rest. Sickness is one way the body will take rest, but it is not the healthy way. Our bodies will give us signs and warnings to slow down but guess what? We never listen until it is too late and we are forced to rest. “Stress doesn’t only make us feel awful emotionally. It can also exacerbate just about any health condition you can think of.” Says Jay Winner, MD. Wow! Now that’s scary. 

They also listed 10 health problems related to stress:

• Heart disease
• Asthma
• Obesity      
• Diabetes
• Headaches
• Depression and anxiety
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Accelerated aging
• Premature death.

This information is staggering and if we do not see the need to stop, breathe and rest we are opening ourselves up to greater risk. God is showing us more and more that we can work but we must trust him to take care of us while we rest in him.