Rest

Rest is difficult to come by sometimes.  Especially if you have young ones in the home!  I've noticed that Corey has started asking me first thing in the morning, "How did you sleep last night?"  The way we rest can completely influence the way we feel and what we accomplish the rest of the day.

I have been reading "Streams in the Desert" the past bit and today there was a beautiful poem about rest.  It compared those who are able to rest, with those who have God within them.  Such a simple idea, but easily observed in everyone around us.  When I feel frenzied and panicked, or fearful, rest does not come easily.  I sleep restlessly and with disturbances.  I avoid sleep and fret myself constantly into a "tizzy."  But after I've been with the Lord, my entire demeanor changes.  I become relaxed and my worry dissipates.  I am happy to say that my periods of panic and unrest are fewer and more far between than they were in earlier years, and I know it is because I more regularly find myself conversing and handing those problems over to Him.  The more I live, the more I realize that I have so very little to do with my own life and plans.  And that handing over complete control allows the right things to happen at the right time, so in the meantime, I rest.

"Straining, driving effort does not accomplish the work God gives man to do. Only God Himself, who always works without strain, and who never overworks, can do the work that He assigns to His children.  When they restfully trust Him to do it, it will be well done and completely done. The way to let Him do His work through us is to partake of Christ so fully, by faith, that He more than fills our life."  (from Streams in the Desert)

And here's my favorite line from the poem that was in today's reading: