What is your first response if you start feeling weary in your circumstances?
For me, I normally search for a fast and simple stress reliever. Chocolate, coffee, or wine are all easy ways for me to let indulgence distract me from my stress. Other times I give into the emotions of frustration and start to vocalize my emotions in a negative way. I grow to be critical, harsh, and unkind to the people around me. Mostly I just begin to feel defeated, lower than, and start to feel like a failure.
Jesus knows that all of us struggle with feelings of exhaustion and exasperation. John 11: 28-30 says, “Come to me, all you who’re weary and burdened, and I will provide you with rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I’m gentle and humble in heart, and you can find rest on your souls. For my yoke is simple and my burden is light.”
Oh man, what a precious promise of relief for the moments we actually need it!
How will we walk in that rest and practice reaching for that comfort when we want it? I’ve been fascinated about this lots these past few weeks because we’re once more parenting toddlers. We are within the means of adopting a two-year-old and a three-year-old. There is such joy in becoming this big, crazy family, but it surely’s also easy to get weary as a parent. Parenting is hard. Foster care and adoption add an entire extra layer to parenthood. Also, toddlers are crazy!
I would like Jesus greater than ever to like my people well. I can grow to be burdened with worries about all of the things I’m unable to manage about my children’s stories. I can feel exhausted as I’m busy meeting needs all day long. I’m grieved by the losses they’ve already endured. It can all start feeling very heavy. Thankfully, I’m not on this alone. God often gives us greater than we are able to handle by ourselves, and the rationale why is he’s teaching us to attract on his strength and call on His Spirit increasingly every day.
Here are some ways the Bible tells us we are able to find rest:
1. Pursue Meekness
In the Beatitudes, that are present in Matthew 5, Jesus teaches that the meek are blessed. Meekness will also be described as gentleness. It’s a restrained expression of the facility we have now been given on this life. As a parent, meekness is difficult to keep up! When my children begin to overwhelm me, I are inclined to use a harsh tone and a heavy hand to force them to vary their behavior. This tactic in life is exhausting. Trying to manage others almost never works and is a life-sucking endeavor.
A meek heart is one which acknowledges the necessity for God’s hand to be at work in our lives. It lets go of the death grip lots of us maintain on our circumstances and trusts that God will work out our circumstances for his glory. Meekness is a mild diligence that commits to surrendering our lives to the Lord. Jesus declares that it’s the meek that may inherit the Earth. That’s a reasonably large promise, and it’s an announcement we are able to rest in.
2. Pursue Prayer
Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in all the things by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I like the image of us sitting to wish to God’s peace, just descending on us like a cloud. This peace that guards us and keeps us in the dear will of God.
Prayer is the tool God uses for us to release our cares over to him. It’s so interesting that, as humans, we regularly must share in an effort to heal. God knows this; that’s why he invented prayer. As we share our hearts with God we start to enter his presence and experience his rest. Sometimes prayer is just not about seeing God change our circumstances but about God changing our hearts.
As I walk through this intense season of parenting, I keep praying that God will give me his heart of affection for my children. He will renew my strength so I can see past the tantrums and whining. I can see his heart for the children he has given me to shepherd and permit me to indicate them his love, even when it feels tough. It’s these easy prayers which have the facility to show around my days.
3. Pursue God’s Presence
Exodus 33:14 says, “And he said, “My presence will go together with you, and I will provide you with rest.” One of the characteristics of God’s spirit is rest. If you should not sure if something is part of God’s will, one approach to Biblically test the situation is when you feel peace and rest in your circumstances. You can pass though the craziest God moments and all of the while experience his supernatural peace.
God doesn’t call us to do easy things, but he’s a God of order. In our own story, as we have now walked through years of uncertainty as foster parents, we have now felt supernatural peace through this very long wait for an adoption date. This journey God has called us to has not been easy, but it surely’s never felt chaotic. Each time our minds have been flooded with worry, his rest-giving Spirit has reminded us that he has our family in his hands. Pursue God’s presence in your life, and you may begin to experience a latest level of rest, order, and peace.
4. Pursue Gratitude
As we give because of the Lord, we are able to begin to feel our spirits rise. God tells us in Nehemiah 8:10 that his joy is our strength. Practically speaking, this might be writing a listing of belongings you are grateful for at first or end of a day. It might be singing songs of worship to our King that lift him up, helping us see his mighty hand at work in our lives. This might be taking a break out of your routine to pursue rest, leisure, and the possibility to be present along with your people so you may enjoy them once more.
This weekend I felt super overwhelmed as a Mom. I struggled to see how I used to be going to make it through one other week, here at home, with five loud and crazy kids! God helped me let go of my worries and see that there’s much joy to be experienced here on this chaotic season. He prompted me to notice the things that I’m grateful for immediately, as I walk through a season that feels tough as a Mom. He gave me cheerleaders that remind me that also they are grateful for me and the ways in which my faithfulness helps them. This surge of gratitude has helped to flip the script in my brain. I could feel overwhelmed at times, but God is doing a great work in my home, heart, and community. I actually have much to present thanks for.
Rest is something all of us have a tough time pursuing in our crazy busy culture. Fast-paced, high-stress, and super-independent lifestyles are praised in our country. This is the work of the enemy. He wants to depart us so depleted we are able to’t see past the moment, and we lose sight of our everlasting purpose. Busied people should not purposeful people. If we aren’t intentional, then we start to miss out on what God is attempting to do in and thru our lives.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/petrenkod
