Carjacked by Fear and Shame, Part 2
It is my great pleasure to welcome guest blogger, Elizabeth Pierce, to Tree Thoughts. Elizabeth recently joined my favorite online community, Your Writer’s Group, and has blessed us with her wisdom, gentleness and humility. I’ve asked Elizabeth to share with us her thoughts about Christian Rest as Part 2 of “Carjacked by Fear and Shame” because rest is the natural and normal state for every Christian.
Binsey
Christian Rest
by Elizabeth Pierce
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” Matthew 11:28 (NIV)
We live in such a fast paced society, where the goal is to be quick, efficient, effective, productive and accomplished. When we are immersed in this kind of society, it is difficult to see the toxic effects that it can have on our lives, and we find ourselves just flitting from one demand to another, convinced that this is “normal” and wondering what is wrong with us, why we aren’t liking it, can’t keep up, or are just plain tired. And the one thing we don’t have time to do, is to stop. To be still and know that He is God. To listen to Him, to see if what we are doing is really what He wants us to do. Pretty effective tactic of the enemy if you ask me. Use our desire to serve and please God to make us captive. To deprive us of the rest that God promises us.
Jesus says, come to Me and I will give you rest. But we are often so busy for Him that we don’t have time to come to Him the way we need to…so we aren’t getting rest. He doesn’t ask us to fill our schedules to overflowing with tasks for Him. He asks us to come to Him. But we can’t come to Him when we are too busy doing for Him. Too busy to get what we desperately need…His rest. A relationship with Christ is not supposed to burn us out–it is supposed to give us rest.
He is a loving God. And that love prompts Him to care for our every need. He knows we need rest. That the cares of this world, and the hurt and woundedness that comes from living here and not with Him in heaven, threaten to overtake us at times. He understands that some of the things we face are almost unfathomable, and are not possible to overcome by human standards. He knows that we will be stretched, tested, and maybe even persecuted just because we love Him, or because of what we are picking to do for Him. He knows. And so He says to come to Him, so He can give us rest. So that He can give us a break from all that, and fill us up with what we need.
I love the picture presented to us in Isaiah 40:31 about this idea of resting in God. It says, “They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up on wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint.” Isn’t that beautiful? When we come to Him, wait on Him, trust in Him, lay it all before Him . . . He will give us rest. He will give us what we need. We will be strengthened like that magnificent eagle soaring high above the clouds, needing to only spread our wings, with Him underneath us enabling us to fly. No wing flapping required. Just effortless soaring. Easy to not get tired out when you are still, and Someone else is the One keeping you up.
Go to Him, all you who are weary. Go to Him. He will give you rest, because He cares for you. You are His child. He is your Father. He will meet you where you are, He will trade your load for His, and He will fill His load for you to carry with all that you need from Him to keep going. Because He cares for you.
Elizabeth Pierce is a wife, mother of two, and clinical social worker by profession. She lives a busy life, full of children’s sporting events, serving in her church and spending time with the important people God has blessed her with. Most importantly though, she is loved by God, and wants to ensure that everyone else understands that they are too.
