Different kinds of rest:
physical rest
mental rest
emotional rest
spiritual rest: connection to God (the secular definition: the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose and the way they experience their connectedness to the moment, to self, to others, to nature, and to the significant or sacred.” (Puchalski, as cited in The OTPF, 3rd edition). Put more simply, our spirituality is what gives us meaning in our everyday lives.)
Read 1 Kings 19
Other times in Elijah’s campaign, God told him where to hide and find rest. This time, ELIJAH was the one fleeing. He was scared. He was tired. He was in a tailspin. But after a nap, and a God-given snack…he was ready to pursue some spiritual rest. What was the difference? Why did he have to travel 40 days and nights to get it?
When he finally reaches the mountain of God, Mt Sinai, God asks him what he’s doing there and he says the same EXACT phrase twice. “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”
He thinks he’s failed in his PURPOSE.
I think God tires him out physically, emotionally, and mentally with the windstorm, the earthquake, and the fire. He was trying to get him to open his spiritual self enough to actually hear and receive the help God was trying to give.
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU NEED SPIRITUAL REST?
You have lost your sense of hope and feel helpless, trapped, or defeated
You lack motivation for life and feel like it is a waste of energy
You feel far away from God
You are experiencing depression and hopelessness
You feel numb and apathetic
You don’t feel any sense of accomplishment and lack satisfaction
Is it weakness to need rest?
Even God rested. And He let us KNOW that He rested. I think he may have included in the Bible as an example to us, but I think He rested because it was the PERFECT thing to do, after creating something PERFECT. It is complete, whole, and nothing can be added to it or taken from it, and therefore, you rest in it.
Which—is why we rest in Him. Understanding that we don’t have to work harder, be better, know all the future threats, etc...we just REST IN HIM.
But for me, sometimes, I am reading my Bible, I am leading others, I am worshipping, and sleeping, and taking days off, and I still have trouble with true soul-rest.
What helps you get that spiritual-rest?
What I need sometimes, like Elijah, to get back to that spiritual-rest, is an out-of-town-trip. And I don’t often know it until afterward, but that out-of-town trip can fulfill a few things in me that I can see afterward:
Anonymity. (shedding the weight of being known & watched)
Adventure & Fun. (learning new things, abandon, some could even call it “danger”, simple enjoyment of the life God has given you)
Freedom to be spontaneous. (no plan for the day, choices based on want, rather than need)
Change of scenery. (understanding that there is more in this world, than MY world)
Those things can fulfill, in me, a return to being able to rest. They can shave off the fear, the panic, the need to be in control, and allow me to see things a little more clearly from God’s perspective again.
What is God saying to you about rest?
How can you get better at it? What do you need right now?