The Power Of Rest預覽

REST – to be placed or supported so as to stay in a specified position, an instance or period of relaxing or ceasing to engage in strenuous or stressful activity. (Google.)

Are you tired? Are you overwhelmed most days and never get caught up? Is your need for money driving your decisions as to where you work or how you work or how long you work? Does it seem that you will never get out of debt? Does it seem you are living the proverbial rat race? If this is you, you are not alone.

Have you ever seen a hamster wheel? The hamster can get on that wheel and run and run and run until he is worn out. But there is only one problem with that wheel. No matter how fast or how long that hamster runs, when he is good and tired and gets off, he is in the exact same place he started from. Nothing has changed. He can wipe the sweat from his furry little face with a satisfied feeling, but nothing was accomplished to benefit his position in life; he is still locked up in a cage with no freedom.

Too many people work hard all week and fall exhausted into a brief diversion on the weekend, but when Monday comes around, they find themselves in the exact same place they started. 

This was a picture of my life for nine long years. I was a Christian, but I was broke, sick, and bound by fear. No matter how many hours I worked, I couldn’t seem to break through my situation.

I remember one day after reaching the end of my rope and crying out to God, running downstairs and grabbing my wife, Drenda. I told her that the Lord had spoken to me, and that He said our answer was His Kingdom. We thought we already understood what God’s Kingdom was. We went to a great church, we both loved God, and knew we were on our way to heaven. But as we were about to find out, we really knew very little about His Kingdom and how it operated. 

Our answer was found in a word we never expected.

Rest.

Rest means answers. It means living a life of financial, emotional, or physical stress was not God’s plan in the beginning, and it is not God’s plan for you today either.