The Rest of the Story

I started this story at the turn of the New Year when I began a four month detox/dietary program that would help bring healing to a major health concern.  I wrote about it here when I knew I was beginning a new story in TRUST.  In the process it has also became a story of REST.

I had been warned that the first month of this journey toward healing would be the most difficult, with symptoms getting worse before getting better.  In fact, this was the reason I planned to start at the New Year, after the busy holiday season.  I am blessed to be a part of a leadership team that not only allowed me to take time from many regular activities, but actually encouraged it.  REST, it seemed, was an absolute necessity.   At times I felt like I was somehow slacking.  I wanted to work through it, but my body had other plans.  No matter how much I thought I could will myself to be involved, my body refused and I was forced to give in to REST.

By February, I was already starting to feel alive again.  I was able to participate in more than I had in months and I knew God was working His healing in my body.  Since I was still not 100%, I had to pick and choose only the activities I felt God was calling me to do.  The process had given me permission to REST without guilt and simply follow God with the strength gained.

Often times, we can be so determined to serve that we sacrifice rest, running ourselves ragged in areas that we beg God to bless.  God however has a plan that He has already blessed, and being in Him is where He would rather have us. Lately in our prayer times at DCF, God has been speaking to us about the River of Life and  finding REST in His current.  When we follow in His flow, it won't matter what rocks may lie ahead.  We don't need to flail and we aren't being tossed around, rather we are being carried, moving in REST as it were.    

REST is a place where we have let go of that control 

and are letting God take us through His way.  

Bonnie over at Faith Barista said it well when she said,

"Rest comes when we are free to get lost in the doing 

because we trust that God is producing fruit in our being."

I have just begun the third month of my four month health program.  I am doing very well and am amazed at how far God has carried me in what seems to be a short amount of time.  In this time of REST, I have been forced to listen to my body without the distraction of my will, meaning I can more quickly tell when and how to REST.  I think it is like that God too.   The more time we spend in His REST, the more easily we can hear Him.  We are not so busy doing our own things, as noble as they may be, that they would distract or filter out the sound of His gentle whisper. He calls us to REST for a reason.  Let us not neglect it.  But let us find it in Him, the only place where true rest can be found (Psalm 62).