Stop long enough to Reach Rest with God 

 

In our sabbath season where we have downtime to rest. the four moves are:

1. Stop (don't swap)
2. Rest
3. Delight
4. Worship

When we stop, we have to stop for long enough to reach a place of rest with God.

There are two sorts of rest we need to aim for

1. Body Rest
2. Mind and Spirit Rest

By Body Rest I mean physically stopping for long enough so that our heart rate reduces and our muscles relax.

By Mind and Spirit Rest I mean putting aside the things that consume our thoughts - work, family,  church, worries, opportunities, dreams, visions - so we are just in a moment of internal stillness with God.   (NOTE: if you find it hard to put aside thoughts, try writing them down or making a note of them in your phone.  One of the reasons we keep thinking thoughts is that we worry we will forget them.  Writing them down can take away that fear.)

Our Bodies, Minds and Spirits are a bit like flywheels.  When a flywheel stops being driven by a motor, it continues to spin.  It takes some time to slow down and come to a complete stop.  It can be the same for us.  It takes time for our Bodies, Minds, and Spirits to slow down and come to a complete stop.   

But when we do, we experience that we can be WITH God without having to do anything FOR God, or even planning to do anything for God.  We don't even need to pray about anything.  God is delighted to be with us even when we are doing nothing.

Taking the time to reach this rest with God is worth it.

To help you do this - break up your routine.

We can do this in large ways - eg go on holidays.  

But we can also do it in small ways -  it can be as simple as sitting in a different chair, or turning your chair to look out a different window.  

We are doing this as a church by breaking up our routine of Sunday Gatherings.

Get out into nature

Sleep longer: go to bed earlier, get up later 

When I went on a 2 week spiritual retreat with Dallas Willard, the first thing he asked us to do was to get 10 hours sleep that night!!

Take a break from social media

Now if getting out into nature is hard, or the presence of young children makes it difficult, or if getting to sleep is an issue for you, don't stress, just ask God for wisdom about what you might do to break up your routine and reach rest with GOD.

Then Practice (more than once)

The first time you do these things, it may not feel like you reach rest.  That is ok you will get better with practice.

Fit people return to physical rest quickly

When you do regular physical exercise, two of the things happen to your cardio vascular system are:

• your resting heart rate reduces AND 
• the time it takes you to return to your resting heart rate after exercise also reduces.

The same thing happens when we practice rest with GOD.  We will reach deeper rest and the time it takes to reach rest will reduce.  

We build up memories of times and places we have reached rest with GOD.  And recalling them can help us reach rest in the moment even if we can't physically go back to those places.

Deliberately recall in vivid detail a time you have reached rest in the past - where you were, what was it like, how did it feel etc.

I have found that when I go on holidays, it takes me one or two weeks to reach a deep place of rest with God.  But I have also found that remembering those experiences helps me enter moments of rest with God in the midst of busyness.

Ask God to help you

God designed us to live from a place of rest.  It is what God wants for you.  So ask for God's help and be open to His promptings and provision today.