Are you weary of the pace of this world? Does the never-ending deluge of information from the media wear you out? God promises that when we meet him, we find our true rest along these ancient paths—not in a new technology, a new medication, or the passage of new legislation, but through intentionally and habitually coming to Jesus and casting our burdens upon him. Only there do we find true and enduring rest. When we submit our inputs and outputs to the gospel, we will find that the voices of outrage dim and the peace of God grows.
Rest
Evelyn Underhill
Have you ever noticed that Jesus is never recorded as taking a holiday? He retired for the purposes of his mission, not from it. He was never destroyed by his work; he was always on top of it. He moved among people as the Master of every situation. He was busier than anyone; the multitudes were always at him, yet he had time, for everything and everyone. He was never hurried, or harassed, or too busy. He had complete supremacy over time; he never let it dictate to him. He talked of “my time” “my hour.” He knew exactly when the moment had come for doing something and when it had not. A life lived in God is a life that masters time. One can see the distractions for what they are and centre down on the things that really matter. But of course this doesn’t mean that Christians do less than other people. (Look at Jesus again, and think of those people – many of the busiest you have known – who have something of this quality.)
Marva J. Dawn
A great benefit of Sabbath keeping is that we learn to let God take care of us — not by becoming passive and lazy, but in the freedom of giving up our feeble attempts to be God in our own lives.
Andrew Murray
Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord, where I can go in and shut the door, and kneel to my Father in secret, and am at peace as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and above is trouble.
Author Unknown
Let’s approach Christmas with an expectant hush, rather than a last-minute rush.
Floyd McClung
Crisis is not a time to reason things through intellectually, cast blame, or look for “sin in the camp.”
Horatius Bonar
Faith is rest, not toil. It is the giving up all the former weary efforts to do or feel something good, in order to induce God to love and pardon; and the calm reception of the truth so long rejected, that God is not waiting for any such inducements, but loves and pardons of His own goodwill, and is showing that goodwill to any sinner who will come to Him on such a footing, casting away his own poor performances or goodnesses, and relying implicitly upon the free love of Him who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.
Bill Johnson
Rest is the climate that faith grows in (see Heb. 3:11–4:11). It comes out of the peace of God. And it is the Prince of Peace who will soon crush satan underneath our feet (see Rom. 16:20)! What is restful for us is violent to the powers of hell. That is the violent nature of faith.
Jim Goll
The road to true intimacy with God is an inward journey, proceeding into His Presence through the entrance gate of quietness of the soul. It is a narrow track that lies well off the beaten path, virtually unseen and ignored by the vast majority of humanity careening headlong through life.
Richard M. Swenson
Because He is not temporally pushy about His agenda, God is too easy to forget. He just waits…and waits. What does He think of “efficient” prayers? What happened to the “Be still and know that I am God” times? Societies that have the accelerator to the floor are doomed to become God-less. Speed does not yield devotion.