Welcome to Day #30 of the Restoration Project.
It’s hard to believe that tomorrow will be the last day of this series. Today is the last guest post and I am glad to have my friend Karina share her heart with you. I connected with Karina through the Declare Conference and now we are voxing friends too. Karina has a soothing voice and a heart for Jesus.
Karina is a devoted follower of Jesus from New Orleans, Louisiana, but has made her home in Baton Rouge for the past 17 years. She spends much of her time leading worship at church, writing, reading, dancing and mentoring the next generation. She has a huge heart for serving and missions. She is an advocate for the local church especially the one that she attends, Healing Place Church. She also enjoys working out, traveling, photography and going to concerts/conferences. Karina believes that every women has a God-sized dream on the inside of them and it is up to an encouraging community to help nurture that dream.
Connect with Karina through her blog or find her on Instagram or Twitter @karina268.
The Rest of God
Well, if you are anything like me, you don’t rest well. I have no idea why! Because I really would like to rest. Rest is good and it’s needed.
I can’t for the life of me remember if I liked naps as a child but I sure do like them now. The problem is that I wait until I am exhausted to take those naps. I’m single with no kids but my schedule stays pretty full. If I have an ounce of margin, I will fit something else in.
The Lord has been highlighting a theme of rest in my life over the past few weeks. It seems everywhere that I turn, I am hearing a message or hearing a song or having a conversation with a friend about rest.
So, I am trying to lean into what He wants to say to me. I think He has given me some revelation about myself as I get older. Honestly, I believe it applies to many of us, especially to women.
There are some hindrances that I’ve noticed as to maybe why we don’t rest:
We self-impose a burden to do everything ourselves.
Now where this comes from, I have no idea. I’ve never experienced or heard of anyone telling someone else that they had to do it all. We are nurturers by nature. We are often time-fixers. We like to have control. But God never asks this of us. He asks us to trade our heavy burdens for His easy yoke. I think we need to become skilled at saying ‘yes’ to God things and ‘no’ to everything else.
We are afraid of what God will speak to us.
When I’m busy, I don’t always hear what God is saying. I know that if I still myself in His presence, I will have no choice but to hear Him. That can be scary! We never know what sin He may highlight or what task He will ask of us. But, I want to push past that fear and lean into His correction, refining or encouragement.
I’m not a huge fan of silence but I know my body, mind and spirit need it. I am so thankful that I have recently discovered a local Methodist church that has classes on Centering Prayer and even has a Silent Retreat.
We are plagued with FOMO.
This is real my friends! The fear of missing out can be a serious hindrance to rest especially in an age where we can see all that is going on. Sometimes, we say ‘yes’ to things just because we want to be there with the important people. We think that something amazing will happen without us or that we will miss an opportunity of a lifetime or that if we say ‘no’ the opportunity will never come again. None of that is true! God is always bringing about new doors of opportunity if we will adhere to His rhythms of rest and work.
Grateful for this reminder in Hebrews 4. Verses 9-10 tell us that a “A Sabbath rest remains, therefore, for God’s people. For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His.”
Rest comes in all forms but it must come—in mind, body and spirit.
God rest. Jesus rested. So must we.
In which area do you find it most difficult to rest? Why?
For His Name and His Renown,
Karina
P.S. Read Days 1-29 of the Restoration Project.