Rest

*Rest: a: relief from anything distressing, annoying, tiring, etc.

             b: peace of mind; mental and emotional calm; tranquillity.

Are you worn out? Feel like life is unraveling right before you? Distressed from life’s battles and woes? Well, do I have good news for you! God says He will give you rest! 

    In Matthew 11:28, Jesus tells the crowd gathered around Him that they can have rest for their souls if they come to Him. Going to God requires action and humbling on our part; are we ready to surrender our cares to God? Too often we try to carry the load on our own, and eventually, realize that the load is too heavy to carry. God wants to take the burden off of our shoulders once we surrender it.

 When you read the definitions of the word “rest”, listed above, understand that Jesus’ words have much more depth. He states that we can come to Him. We can come weary with life, burned out, and He will give relief from anything distressing us.  As well as, giving us mental and emotional calm! 

Go to Jesus today. Run to Him if need be, and receive God’s rest!

We love you, and we are praying for you. 

Salt Ministries. Sis. Pinky McGinty

Let’s pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for The Word! You understand that life can be challenging, and burdensome at times; so you offer us rest. Help us to humble ourselves, and receive Your rest today. 

In Jesus’ name,

Amen

*www.yourdicitonary.com; retrieved on 9/14/16

Get some rest!

Get some rest! 

We live in a world where we are always going, going, going. We ALLOW The pressures of life to dictate a warp-speed pace for us. We are stressed, depressed, and oppressed by things which we should have dominion over. We seldom take the time we need for our bodies to recuperate, for our minds to rejuvenate, or for our souls to simply relax. In fact, we go so much that we threatened to run ourselves ragged. So, what does the Bible say about resting? 

Our God is all about reaping and sewing. (that's working), but he is also a God of balance. That is where the Sabbath comes in to play. After God created the world, after he'd done all of the awesome and majestic things that we read in the book of Genesis Ch 1, He then creates the Sabbath; which, in a nutshell, means resting from work. He sanctified it- called it holy (Gen 2:1-3). You to say that in the entire Bible the first thing to ever be called holy is the Sabbath? Hmmm.  I find this of great significance. It means that we certainly should observe a holy period of rest.

We are supposed to rest. How can we renew our minds daily, when we are always thinking about the day that has just passed, and stresses and stressors of a tomorrow that may never come?  God observed the Sabbath as an entire day. (food for thought, right?) So, what the Bible says about resting is that we should remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. (Ex 20:8) I know that our calendar may not be aligned with the original Hebrew calendar, and that our work schedules may not permit an entire day of resting or resting on the recognized sabbaths (Saturday or Sunday). I believe what's important is the concept of a regularly scheduled period of rest. We must, as with many things in this life, PLAN to rest. That's right, schedule in your time of rest. Plan it into week (each day if you have to).

Now, there is a consequence for not resting. Have you ever read the 23rd Psalm? verse two says "he MAKES me to lie down in the green pastures". That doesn't sound like an option to me. It seems to me that because our God is our provider, The good Shepherd, He will make sure that we get everything that we need, including rest, whether or not we want it. But, because He is a good God -He provides us rest in "green" pastures.
Hallelujah.

Get some rest!

I love you, and I am praying for you.
~Pastor Erroyl
SALT