What if I Don’t Rest?

Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But you said, ‘We will not listen.’ Therefore hear, you nations, you who are witnesses, observe what will happen to them.

Jeremiah 6:16-18

The nations are watching.

Everything I read, everything He asks, leads me to the nations. Abraham’s promise was about the nations. Joseph’s sufferings crossed nations and provided for nations. The Israelites’ wandering gathered the nations (see Rahab’s story, ancestor of Jesus). Jesus’ death destroyed the dividing wall between the nations and the sheet come down from heaven rebuked Peter’s exclusion of the nations. 

My service and my suffering, my exultation and my exhaustion, my joy and my sorrow all lead me to the nations.

My God loves the nations and He is pursuing them with relentless determination, full of unending love and mercy.

So what does my rest have to do with it?

We can exhaust ourselves in doing good. We can become little messiahs hailing the Messiah yet trying to do it all on our own. #rest Share on X

And when the rest invitation comes from the One who is gentle and humble of heart, we do well to listen. Especially if we are ministry leaders.

For the nations are watching.

What might quake across the landscape of this world if they witnessed a people rested by their God? Rested from the fear and pressure of doing, rested into being. Walking in the rhythms of grace beside the One who restores our lives and gives us rest for our souls.

Lord, I am listening. And I will walk in the good way with You. May the nations be glad! Amen.

@audreycfrank

Photo by Aksel Sjællænder on Unsplash