Season 29: Rest
Whew! Ya’ll, I have entered the last year of my twenties by God’s grace. Happy Birthday Tee! ✨ Diving right into this one because I need this reminder (and this permission); there comes a point where all you hear and see is what God is saying to you! We know that God is always speaking to us and the more we are integrating/applying the Word to our lives, the more we will hear him. However, sometimes our spiritual ears are closed, which prevents us from hearing him; but we can change that by staying in communion with Him. I believe that every season has a theme for lack of better words there’s usually something to learn so that when you come out of it, you’re better than when you went in. So, as I began to transition into this next phase one word kept reciting itself in my mind “rest” and I immediately understood the instruction as it’s something I completely desired. You know how you ask God for clarity, guidance, or a sign, and you think He’s going to write you a step-by-step manual; but he gives you a single word?! That’s how it happened for me and it’s not as surface as you may think, I knew exactly what God was saying which pointed me to one of my current weaker areas.
Confession: I am devoted to making things happen for myself once I put my mind to something, and often feel like I have to do it on my own. The problem with this is that I cannot do it in my strength, that’s the bottom line. What I have learned doing this is that I am well capable of reaching my goals and depending on myself to an extent. Only able to keep it together for a little while but trying to assist God in any way will have you chasing your tail and audaciously mad at Him. The worst part is we do it to ourselves, whether we acknowledge it or not, we are the ones standing in our own way. My twenties have been spent on an emotional roller coaster of “I have to get it done” complete workaholic, achiever, and dreamer because I needed my plans to work. Realistically, I’m not on my time clock I’m on Gods it’s time to hang up the hat that I have to do it all because I cannot, that part has been a little more difficult for me to accept and the fact of the matter is we cannot help God, he's got it all under control. Now that I’ve got that out. I usually set the tone of a new (birth) year with a foundation of prayer and listen to what God intends for me to do in my next and how he expects me to move. This practice has become helpful to me with where I have been, and where I am going… What I know is that this season particularly requires me to fully rest in God: to rest in God by indulging in Him completely, everything in His strength and nothing of my own. The level of trust and assurance I must have in my next has to be solely in God. Proverbs 3:5 states “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding.”
Now, to achieve this rest concept, it takes another level of discipline, surrender, and confidence in the fact that you’re covered. For me, this looks like giving all my things back over to God daily, my stressors, doubts, and worries. Learning to put down those things that aren’t mine to carry in the first place, instead of running myself tired. So, to start my day in the morning during prayer, I begin, “Good morning God, thank you for today I am giving it back to you, it’s in your hands, and anything that I try to carry myself, you have total control, Lead me!” Ease comes with rest and that’s what I require my “soft girl era” to look like resting in the bosom of God and at peace from the inside out. This Grants me the “God”-fidence to take on the day and my tasks set before me without the scrambling and overwhelming feeling.
Unlearning the need to be doing something all the time, we often busy ourselves as way of distraction. All busy isn’t good busy, and what I had noticed was with a full schedule and plate there was no time that I was taking to spend in God’s presence and rest in him, hustle culture had me in a chokehold for a minute and the only thing I got from it was an attitude and tired in the end. It was overwhelming desiring rest that I wasn’t prioritizing as it seemed so out of reach, when God gave me the word, I was in the middle of shift at work on the verge of an anxiety attack. I was thinking to myself “God, I can’t keep doing this, it’s too much, something has to change!”. Once he hit me with the word, I chuckled to myself because I’m like he hears me. The simple fact I know that I have access to the simplicity and sweetness by letting God do his thing is guaranteed because God’s word is bond.
Xo, Tee!