As you may know, I love to help you overcome life’s obstacles, trust God more deeply, and live the abundant life. And a lot of what I talk about comes not only from my education but also from my personal experience. I’ve been through the wilderness and it’s amazing to be out, but I frequently go back into the wilderness so that I can help you come through too.

But today’s topic is a little different. I’m still in the wilderness on this one. And I am hoping we can walk it together.

I want to talk about resting in the Lord—specifically, how to do it without feeling lazy.

There are two ways in which we rest in the Lord: physically, and emotionally.

When you think of rest, you likely think of sleeping, vacations, and lazy Sundays. But it’s so much more than that.

Do you remember what you did when you were a kid and you had a problem? Did you go back to your room to figure it all out, stress over every possible scenario and work every angle? Of course not. You likely took that problem to your parents or guardian and went back outside to play, not giving it another thought.

That’s what God wants us to do, too. Even Jesus in Matthew 18:3 said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Yikes. That makes it pretty clear that trying to have everything figured out all the time is misguided.

For the majority of my life, I have believed that rest is for sissies. Boy was I wrong. I was confusing rest with laziness.

I’ve since learned that resting is what you do when you need to recover or prepare. Laziness, on the other hand, is when you are unwilling and unmotivated to any kind of work.

I was not lazy. Not by a long shot. But that didn’t stop me from believing the lies.

I believed that if I put the project down and spent time with my family, I was being lazy.

I believed that if I didn’t ponder all possible solutions to my problems than I was being lazy.

I honestly believed that if I didn’t keep going, someone would surpass me and all my work would be for nothing.

What a lie!

Are you believing lies too?

Resting in the Lord is more than just getting a little extra shut eye; it is cultivating a confident assurance that everything will work out according to His sovereign will.

I know you desire to follow Him, but maybe your life is being turned upside down right now and you keep thinking, There has to be something that He wants me to do. He can’t possibly expect me to just rest… can he?

Yes, God really does want to take care of every aspect of your life.

So what’s going to happen if you don’t rest in the Lord? There are three consequences of ignoring God’s rest:

Consequence #1

Consequence #3

All it takes to move forward is to put your trust in Him.

Of course, God doesn’t want you to just sit on you tush all day! He wants and needs you to do your part, but that’s it. YOUR part. Not His.

God can be trusted. He knows the end from the beginning, and he wants what’s best for you.

Will you choose today to lay your burdens down and say, “God I rest in you”?