How can rest be practical?
May 25 - 31, 2025 | Always Peachy Devotionals | Rest Week 5
It’s easy to talk about resting, but is it practical?
In my experience, resting is always easier said than done. Life’s priorities get out of alignment so quickly, and we get buried under all our responsibilities. Rest sounds irresponsible or weak or like bad leadership.
So what does it mean when our Scriptural role models made time and space to rest? Do you think God chose bad leaders to be examples about how we are to live? Or do you think that the calling God had on their lives was less important than what He’s asked you to do?
Obviously, the heroes from the Bible were imperfect (Jesus is the exception, of course), but God picked them to be the main characters in their stories for a reason.
We can learn something about rest from our Bible heroes. That’s what we’re talking about this week. Did they always get things right? No. Sometimes they really got sideways, but that’s how it works for all of us too. So if they lived a life God could bless in spite of all their mistakes, God can do the same for us.
So let’s talk about how God-followers in Scripture rested. Let’s look at their lives and examples and see if we can find some guidance and direction for our own lives. That’s why we have their stories, after all, and that’s why God has never pulled His punches when it came to showing us their highs and their lows.
Outside of Jesus, no Bible hero or heroine was perfect. They all screwed up at some point. But we have their stories so that we can see how following God works. And if they made time and space to rest, that means we need to do it too.
Monday - Jesus (Mark 6:31)
Tuesday - Elijah (1 Kings 19:7-8)
Wednesday - Jonah (Jonah 1:4-6)
Thursday - Joseph (Genesis 39:2-5)
Friday - Abraham (Genesis 22:5-8)
Rest is hard. And if it were natural, we wouldn’t struggle with it. But as human beings we feel the pressure to perform, to provide for ourselves, to carry the weight of our lives on our own shoulders. We mean well. We might even accept a responsibility out of obedience to the Lord, where we feel Him asking us to step in for someone who can’t take care of themselves. That’s good and noble and worthy of praise.
But don’t let that good thing you’ve chosen to do become more important in your life than what God has clearly asked you to do. Trusting that you can handle something on your own is pride, and pride will always take you away from God’s plan. He never intended for you to do life on your own.
Choosing to rest is choosing to obey. It’s choosing to trust Him with your needs, not just your life. So our verse this week is a powerful reminder about how we can begin to enter into an attitude of rest, Psalm 37:7.
Life will always throw you for a loop. Curve balls are constant. If everything in your life is going according to plan, just be ready for it to all start circling the drain at some point. That’s not being negative; that’s just being practical.
Nobody can make it through life without struggling in some way. Even if you don’t personally struggle, you will know someone who is. And in the face of injustice or hurt feelings, you will be tempted to act rashly or to descend into depression or discouragement.
Worry is so much easier than waiting.
The next time life goes sideways and the anxieties flare and the tempers rise, choose to be still. Choose to wait quietly. He knows. He sees. And He has a plan.
Stay focused on your real goals. Stay the course following Him. Trust Him to sort out the inequalities and the unfairness.
Rest. In Him.
Praying for you this week, my friend.
Amy
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