Happy Rest

Have you ever felt the sweet happy sense of rest upon going to bed at night? How delightful was the sensation of relaxing every muscle and letting your body go into perfect abandonment of ease and comfort.  The strain of the day had ceased, for a few hours at least.  You no longer had to hold up an aching head, a weary back, or a burdened heart. You trusted yourself to the bed in an absolute confidence and it held you up without effort or strain.  You rested!

But suppose you had doubted the strength or the stability of your bed, and had dreaded each moment to find it giving way beneath you.  Could you have rested then? Would not every muscle have been strained in a fruitless effort to hold yourself up, and would not the weariness have been greater than if you had not gone to bed at all?

Now, apply this analogy to what it means to rest in the Lord.  Let you souls lie down upon the couch of His will.  Relax every strain, and lay off every burden.  Let yourself go in perfect abandonment of ease and comfort, knowing that, since He holds you up, you are perfectly safe.  Your part is simply to rest. His part is to sustan you; and He cannot fail.

Rest Builders:

• Is there an area or issue in your life in which you need to experience God's rest and peace?
• When have you felt a God-given rest or peace after particularly difficult times?