New Year's Resolution: Rest

Last year, our pastor challenged us to do a character resolution. Something in our hearts and minds that needed work. After prayerfully consideration, I chose this as my goal: Choose Trust. You see I had realized that there was so much in life that I held tightly. So much I felt I had to control, and couldn’t let go of. Over the course of the year, I found myself learning to trust and let go. I was able to relax my attitude and allow my husband to do things differently than I did and not worry so much over it. I found I was able to trust God to be God, and could roll with the punches a bit easier. I found I was able to say “no” to somethings and trust that it was OK to not do everything. It was OK to not be the best at everything, and it was OK to celebrate when others were successful where I was not.

This year, my New Year’s Resolution came easy to me. Since November, I feel like we have been running at an unsustainable pace. The Thanksgiving & Christmas Holiday season is always busy for everyone, but this year, it seemed unreasonable. Our Sunday afternoons were filled with us trying to get those last little thing done for the week. I would sit on the couch in the evening and dread going to bed because it meant facing another day filled with things to do and places to go and people to see. Sometimes I would cry and tell Seth that I just couldn’t do it anymore. God designed us to rest. He created us to need a day of rest, to rest in Him, and to have rest from our enemies. The Old Testament Covenants carry the theme of rest in them because God is working at getting us back to Eden: where Adam and Eve worked hard, worshiped well, and rested fully.

So this year, my goal is to be rested. This means resting from my work, and labor.

Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest. Exodus 34:21 (NIV)

God threw in that last part because He knew the temptation would be strong to just work through the Sabbath when things were busy. During planting and harvest season, farmers are beyond busy. There is a window of time in which they need to get the seed in the ground and bring the harvest in or else the fall rains and cold will destroy their hard work, and, in Old Testament Times, their winter supply of food would be gone too. Harvest is a rough season. Last year, after doing some remodeling on my garden, I ended up with an abundance of produce. It brought me great joy to see the Lord provide for us through my little garden. But there was also the hardship of not just bringing in the produce, but doing something with it so it wouldn’t just rot in the pantry. I nearly drove myself crazy making meals to stick in the freezer. Today I am so grateful for the work and effort I put into it because we have an abundance of freezer meals to pick from every week when I need a break from the kitchen. But at the time, I was anxious and cranky because I was working too much and not resting enough. God knows we will be busy, and that is why He insists we rest.

This also means resting our souls, as well as our bodies:

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says, “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” Isaiah 30:15 (NIV)

Working myself to the bone and refusing to rest doesn’t hurt God, it hurts me. Going to my Father and resting in His loving arms, gives me strength to face the next day and week. The verse from Isaiah above comes in the middle of a passage of accusation. God is listing out the sins of the people and one of them is that they did not repent, and they did not rest. They refused to trust God’s provision and rest in His strength. This is why God commands us to “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy (Exodus 20:8). When we don’t rest and trust God to provide the time, energy, and strength to do what He has given us to be done, we dishonor God by basically stating that He isn’t powerful enough to give us what we need so we can do what we must do.

Sunday mornings are a golden opportunity for us to take the time to worship God and rest. To hear His word, and be with His people. This is where we get centered for the week to come. The key is to make sure that week starts Monday morning, and not Sunday afternoon.

This year my goal is to make resting a habit for my family and me. I wish we would all be refreshed in heart, mind, body, and soul so that we can truly serve those within our family, and those outside of our family. My goal is not to do nothing, but to actively rest from activity so that I can be replenished and strong to live the life God have given me to live.

I will refresh the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish. Jeremiah 31:25 (ESV)

What’s your New Year’s goals or resolutions?