Linking Obedience and Rest

On Tuesday mornings a small group of us meet over coffee to discuss (ostensibly) biblical doctrine. We comprise the main pastoral couple from our church (Clemens and Chrissie), our church administrator (Lynn-lee), another one of the young leaders from church (Kulani) and me. An interesting little group we are, but such life and wisdom springs from our discussions. We have not yet managed to stay on planned topic (we are currently SUPPOSED to be working again through Sam Soleyn's series onessential doctrines), instead somehow we end up zooming off along the most delightful and meaningful tangents. And every time I am challenged and pushed just a little closer to God.

This week instead of discussing what we were supposed to be discussing (and to be honest we are now so far off track, I'm not exactly sure what that should have been - laying on of hands, possibly?) we ended up talking about a connection I had not made before: the link between rest and obedience.

Rest has once again been a key theme coming through strongly since God started to move in our hearts late in 2008. And it keeps coming back as if the Lord is unveiling more and more of what it is, what it means and where it is to be found - something like the layers coming off a package in a game of pass-the-parcel.

-We who believe can enter in a place called "His rest" (Hebrews 4)

-The balance has shifted towards rest from striving

-Rest stems from sonship. Orphans need to work for their provision and protection; sons are always with the Father and everything He has is theirs (Luke 15:31)

-Rest and trust are inextricably linked - we rest because we trust that God is good

-Rest is not lack of activity, but rather it is directed activity, free from stress, worry and anxiety.

What Clemens brought into the equation this time was something that had jumped out at him while he was preaching on Hebrews 4 at the City Centre meeting on Sunday. As he read Chapter 4 from verse 1 to us it hit me too. Rest is lost through disobedience. This is not in the context, though of some slavish relationship where if we disobey God punishes with unrest. Rather it is His word to us that leads us into rest. He leads us beside still waters and restores our soul (Psalm 23). He makes known to us the path of life (Psalm 16:11 - Psalm 16 interestingly is what Kulani had had on his heart all week as well). And so it is out of who He is, His goodness, that He speaks, knowing that if we choose to do what he says we will find rest. And so obedience leads to rest - very simple actually.

And yet over the last three weeks I have struggled like I haven't for a very long time to find any kind of rest. Physically I have been spent - needing ten hours of sleep per day, naps in the afternoons and still feeling too tired to do much more than the bare minimum required to maintain the house and care for the kiddies. Emotionally I have slipped closer to depression than I have been in a long while, and spiritually there has been a tiredness and lack of energy - a loss of some of the usual spark.

As we sat around the table, three small, but specific things that I felt God has suggested I do daily popped into my head: things I had acknowledged as coming from Him, but things that I have for various reasons (apathy, lack of taking them seriously, finding "better" things to do) neglected to do. They are: 1) Read scripture to my children daily; 2) Read aloud (literature) to the children daily - as part of their learning, and  3)Blog daily.

And so I'm going to do this little rest experiment. I'm going to take God at his word and fight for those 3 three things to become part of my daily "furniture". And I'm going to document the process and any perceived results.