Abba, Father, I thank you for your breath and your life. I thank you for those reading this right now. Abba, may we receive your understanding as we seek you. You have never once left us waiting to hear from you. We just don’t always know how to listen or how to dwell in your presence. We are always on the go, treating you like a genie in the sky throwing our problems up as they come and never seeking to understand the most important aspect of life.
Our relationship with you.
Help us to reorient our face to seek you and not the idols of this world. Help us to dwell in your camp, to have Shalom (that we may resist the enemy so that he would flee) and to walk in the understanding that YOU HAVE AND YOU WILL PROVIDE for us.
I thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for not giving up on us and being so long suffering and patient. Let us learn from your example and to be humble.
In your son’s Name, Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah, we Pray.
Amen.
On to this week's topic. (Better buckle up because I wrote a whole blog post this time.)
Do you know what rest is? What does it entail?
Is it unwinding after a long day to sit on the couch with your spouse or children and watch your most beloved tv show or movie? Or maybe it is to hit the gym and find some solitude?
Or is rest taking time off from doing chores to play Video games?
Is rest defined by what we do? Or are we defined by our rest?
Because all of those things sound like distractions.
A hard word, for sure. I myself am convicted.
Would you be rested if you watched TV 24/7? Probably not.
If you played Video Games 24/7? Nope.
Or maybe we just need a cold one after a long day at work. Still not rest.
Rest is defined like so:
Genesis 2: 1-3 (TLV)
1 So the heavens and the earth were completed along with their entire array.
2 God completed—on the seventh day—His work that He made, and He ceased—on the seventh day—from all His work that He made.
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, for on it He ceased from all His work that God created for the purpose of preparing.
The word is a Shin, Bet and a Tav.
The idea is to press or cut(off) the house as a sign.
They shall know us by our love and by our fruit. As Jesus and the first man did, we are called to walk and talk with God in the Cool of everyday. That is the return point that we are being brought to. It is the point we are preparing the way for. We should earnestly seek God’s Rest. To cease from activity to seek him. While this applies to Shabbat once a week (as it is commanded) there are far bigger implications for our daily life. The Shabbat is a celebration, but our week is not supposed to be draining us entirely on the inside.
Jesus found rest in Abba because he understood his destiny and who he (Abba) said he(Jesus) was. In my opinion, how we spend our rest is what defines us. What does walking and talking in the cool of the day sound like? Like rest after a long day of work. But the difference is after that hard day of work, you are being filled by Abba and not distracted from the worries of life. It is the difference of healing a wound and putting a Band-Aid on.
Jesus Could rest in the middle of a storm because his rest was based on his relationship with Abba.
Can we say the same?
This Week, pray that the Lord would soften our hearts to seek him and to dwell with him. That we would have an intimate relationship with him. Pray and ask Abba to reveal himself to you and to show you the way that you can LISTEN to him. (each of us is different in how we may hear. But make sure it lines up with scripture so you are not led to your own doom).
Pray that he would strengthen us to seek him throughout the day, that we would hear his still small voice as we make every decision. We need to humble ourselves, get rid of our foolish pride and get off the throne. Abba wants to lead and guide you through every storm, but you have to get out of the way(speaking to myself here). You have to walk with him in the cool of the day. Pray and repent of seeking rest in things and stuff instead of him. Repent! Turn away from the foolish distractions and seek the only one who can give true rest! There is no shame! Only the greatest opportunity of a lifetime to be intimate with the creator of all things known and unknown.
Pray that in the midst of the strife (strife we are promised for following after Yeshua) that we may rest as a sign that we are Abba’s people. Resting WITH Abba not apart from him. Continually walking and talking with him, letting him prosper us in ways we never thought possible.