Persistence

This week was my turn to speak at our weekly Cru meeting. We have been going through parables so I decided that I would talk about the persistent widow. I have always been a pretty persistent person so I thought this would be easy to relate to. Growing up I would ask and ask again for things. When I really wanted something and set my mind to it, I would not give up. This can be a good quality at times but also obnoxious to those on the other end.

As I read this parable and prepared for it, it was pretty straightforward. Jesus is encouraging the disciples to persist in their prayers, to not lose heart. He shares the story of the persistent widow and the unjust judge. You can find it in Luke 18. He explains that if the unjust judge who didn’t care for people or God, would give justice to the widow, how much more will our heavenly father who loves us, give us justice. It is an encouragement to persist in our prayers, to keep coming before God and asking him for things.

I was thinking about the application for it and it struck me that as much as a persistent person I am, when it comes to praying for other people and other things, I lack that persistence. I am very persistent when it comes to my own issues but for some reason I lack it for others. It was like this light bulb went off in my head, not one that I really liked but good to know. Don’t get me wrong; I do pray for others, I am just not persistent in my prayers for them mostly because I forget. I get consumed in my own world and my own wants. This is something that I want to change. I want to be a person that prays consistently for others. I don’t want to skip through life and be consumed with own little world but to be consumed with others.

I am so glad that I serve a God who is gracious to help me do this. I know left to my own strength I will fail. In my own strength, I will stay consumed with self but through God’s strength I can begin to persist in prayers for other people. I love that I don’t have to try and do it on my own; instead I can go before God and ask him to do it in and through me! It is such a relief to know that I can rest in him. What a mighty, loving and grace-filled God I get to serve!

Resting

I have learned a lot about resting over the past month. For most of my life I have struggled with what it looks like rest and then to actually do it. I tend to find my value in what I do and honestly I really like accomplishing tasks as well as staying busy. I have always seen resting as something that people do but it really never quite fit into my schedule. I always felt that the things I had to do and my schedule was more important than that. I have seen the things I do as dependent upon me and my completely it. I know this is not a good thing. I know our bodies need rest but I really have struggled to actually take the time to do it.

Lucky for me, I married a man who is really good at resting. Chris has this amazing ability to put things aside and take a break. Even when his schedule is busy and there is lots going on he finds time to stop. I have been amazed at his ability to do this. I always viewed the task at hand as the most important thing, but my husband sees life as a whole and his well being as well as his relationship with God and others as most important. I love that so much about him! I love that he takes the commandment to rest seriously. He doesn't seem to get caught up in the pressure of this world to do more. He does what he is called to do and then rests when he needs to.

In the very beginning of time, we received the command to rest. As we all know, God created the world in 6 days and then took the 7th day is rest. I mean if the creator of the universe worked for 6 days and rested on the 7th, you would think that we should follow his example. Then when Jesus comes along, we see him many times throughout scripture that he pulled away to spend time with God, to rest.

I am learning slowly the importance and value of rest. I am learning what is looks like to take the commandment of having a Sabbath day. I have been reading a book on rest by Mark Buchanan. He talks about how we are called to take an actual day of rest but that resting is also a state of mind. That through our relationship with God, we are able to approach each day in a state of rest. When I think about this, I see how amazing this would be. In Hebrews 10, it describes how Jesus as our High Priest had offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice and is now SITTING at Gods right hand. He did the ultimate work and is now resting. What hope and peace we can find in this. We dont have to work to gain the approval of others or to be seen as valuable. We can actually REST. We still do the work we have been called to do but we do it in the state of REST. We give it all to God. Like the verse in Matthew, we give him our yoke and take his yoke, which is easy and light. I am still learning....

Matthew 11:28-29 “…Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”