Do you ever feel like you’re just going and going and going?
When identity gets mangled up in doing doing doing; when insecurity gets masked by busyness; when self-hatred finds alleviation in wearing your body thin…real rest is impossible. It’s impossible to simply be.
If you are “resting” you aren’t really. You’re working around the house, you’re responding to emails, you’re doing something that maybe isn’t your regular job but meets the same need — to be validated. And if you aren’t doing something to be validated, perhaps you’re numbing yourself through entertainment. Please hear me not saying that entertainment is bad. I simply want to invite you to assess, to look underneath, to ask the Father. One of my favorite men of God is Leonard Ravenhill. He writes: “entertainment is the devil’s substitute for joy.” I think there’s a lot of truth to that statement.
Only until validation comes solely through how God sees you, will you truly be able to rest and be at peace?
You are not a rat in a cage meant to stop running only long enough to catch a few hours of tumultuous sleep at night.
You are a human being, an image-bearer of Yahweh, an eternal being, one who is wildly delightful to God.
Do you feel good about yourself only after accomplishing tasks? Only when you’ve run yourself thin? If you aren’t doing something, do you feel that you’re entertaining yourself? Father wants to set you free of this “striving, this grasping”, this insecurity, this self-loathing, this worthless view of self, this misplaced identity.
I invite you to take stock of how you rest and also the role that works and entertainment play in your life. Take some time this week and meditate on
Psalm 46:10.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
Written by James Fraundorf
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