Weary: Lacking Strength, Energy, or Freshness Because of a Need for Rest

The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom,

    so that I know how to comfort the weary.

Morning by morning he wakens me

    and opens my understanding to his will.

(Isaiah 50:4 NLT)

Just as a tree drops its leaves to rest for the winter, from time to time we need to shed a few things in order to rest and renew ourselves. Each month this year, I have been listening to hear the voice of the Shepherd.

For November, Jesus is calling me to rest. To lie down in the green pastures of silence and solitude. To be led in paths for His name's sake. To have Him prepare a table before me. So that I may return with mercy and goodness at my heels, and fresh words for the weary.

Stay tuned for a brand new series in December . . .

Advent{ures}:The Favor of God

I really enjoyed putting together and participating in the 31 Days of Quiet series. I will leave the page up in November, in case, you'd like to revisit some of the "ways to wake up your quiet time." I hope you have been refreshed. That was my intention. I see the posts and Pam Farrel's ideas as a great resource to infuse life into our devotional time with God, because we do get weary and stuck some times. 

Please visit on Thrilling Guest Thursdays in November, as I have a few of my favorite guests lined up to feed your soul with their lovely words!

For this mini sabbatical, I will be resting, reading and relying on the Holy Spirit to rejuvenate and realign my focus as we near the new year, which liturgically speaking begins with Advent. See you in December!  

Linking with Soli Deo Gloria Party!

Sabbath: A Time for Rest

Return, O my soul, to your rest;

    for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

(Psalm 116:7 ESV)

Trinity Episcopal Church, Van Cleef Lake, NY

What comes to mind when you think of the Sabbath? Do you think of God resting on the seventh day? Do you think of going to church to worship God with other believers? Do you think of resting from work? Words like Sabbath, worship, quiet time and rest, raise expectations that we and others have placed on them.

To be honest I never thought of having a quiet time on a Sunday, because I practice other ways of worshiping God on that day, such as Bible classes, praying together and corporate worship services. Some Sundays, I would like to define rest literally and stay in bed. 

I often take an extra Sabbath on Mondays, since most Sundays are full with church and family gatherings. To me Sabbath is a time to cease regular work and just be with God; no agenda driving the day.

In 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time, Pam Farrel surprised me with actual ideas of how to have a quiet time on a Sunday, as well as ways to incorporate the sermon experience into your daily devotions:

Sunday can be a challenging day to have quiet times. Often in the rush of getting to church, we forget to meet with God! 

Try getting . . . early to church. Sit quietly in the pew and pray that God will meet you and the others who come. 

Bring a small gift of encouragement or a card telling one of the ministries at church that you appreciate them and are praying for them.

Sermons can become a springboard for personal devotions.

Use sermon notes for quiet times to review how God might want you to apply the sermon to your everyday life.

During the sermon write down questions about topics you'd like to learn more about or thoughts you'd like to consider in a deeper manner at a later quiet time.

Use the prayer list...to pray for others in your church. Or pray through the church's calendar.

Use traditional liturgies and prayers...

Allow Jesus to pastor you each Sunday as you connect to him.

©Pam Farrel from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time (IVP). For more devotional books by Pam www.Love-wise.com

What does Sabbath mean to you?

Still: Uttering No Sound; Quiet

Silence is praise to you,

    Zion-dwelling God,

And also obedience.

    You hear the prayer in it all.

(Psalm 65:1 The Message)

I am restless. A cold snap in the weather caught me unawares. I miss sitting out on our front porch. To go for a walk seems like a huge effort; to find socks, a coat, a hat and gloves appears insurmountable. I sit in the front room staring out at the empty porch swing, wondering how a little cold weather holds me hostage. My mind wanders and focus eludes me. The sunlight peeps through the window. I need some sunshine. I need some warmth. I want to be outdoors in the solitude and silence of a good walk with God.

I grab my phone, a travel mug with coffee, a book and a pen. I rummage through the closet to find gloves and a warm coat. Walking to the park, my mental block begins to thaw. My soul warms up to God. We just walk together. I try to read, but He just wants to be with me. Uttering no sound, being quiet together, moving through the cold, sunny day is enough.

Enough to bring me back to peace, back to some mental clarity and the ideas for a class I'm teaching on Friday begin to flow, just like the blood coursing through my body and the oxygen filling my lungs. 

Solitude affords me the opportunity to be present to the moment. To listen and soak in God's love. 

In 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time, Pam Farrel reminds us that we have to carve out time to be still and know God:

Enjoying quiet is a lost art. Many of miss God in the everyday, but when things are still, when we take time in the quietness of nature--or in the quietness of our souls--our hearts will begin to tune into thoughts of God. 

If it's been a while since you stopped to smell the roses, do just that. Begin your journey in solitude by a walk in a garden or park. find a grassy knoll and lay on your back...and watch clouds, noting their shapes. then just pray through your thoughts as they come, even if they seem jumbled and random. 

It may feel strange at first to rest in the Lord, but one day of R and R with God can give you back months of clarity and productivity.

©Pam Farrel from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time (IVP). For more devotional books by Pam www.Love-wise.com

What is keeping you from being still?

Refresh: To Give Someone More Of

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God stands forever.

(Isaiah 40:8 NIV)

Trees are ever changing their outward appearance season after season. Tiny buds to full, verdant foliage, to multi-colored leaves that drop to the ground, to bare branches; each version of a tree gives me something to appreciate. The hope of new life in the spring, the shade of summer, the rich palette of autumn and the stark, clear view of the winter sky. When I embrace the offering of each season in perspective, I am refreshed.

Trees also remind me that summer does not last forever; seasons fade, but the Word of the Lord remains constant.

Pam Farrel encourages us to change it up with our Bible versions:

Sometimes when we read and reread passages, they become such familiar territory  that we don't see the word afresh. But God's Word is alive! We need to find ways to heart hear the words of Scripture as if we were reading them for the first time. 

One way to do this is to read a different translation or to read a variety of translations to gain a different perspective on the same passage.

©Pam Farrel from 30 Ways to Wake Up Your Quiet Time (IVP). For more devotional books by Pam www.Love-wise.com

With biblegateway.com comparing translations has become so much easier. Here are some samples of a favorite verse about rest. (Matthew 11:28)

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  

(NASB)

Come to me, all who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. 

(GOD'S WORD Translation)

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

(KJV)

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

(The Message, Matthew 11:28-30)



To peruse all of the 31 Days of Quiet posts thus far, 
clicketh here!

Rest: To Remain Confident {Intuition Diaries}

I am still confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the LORD

in the land of the living. 

(Psalm 27:13 NIV)

Over and over again, we have witnessed the goodness of the LORD on this trip. Over the past two days, His goodness and mercy have been following us like faithful companions.

Palmyra, New York

On Sunday we left the quietude of Palmyra, listening to praise music and witnessing nature. We saw this cormorant basking in the sun, which made us think of lifting our praises to our Creator. 

We took a shorter jaunt (10 miles) to the town of Newark, where we found fresh, local produce at the Sav-a-Lot. The town, like many of the towns along the western section of the canal provided free shore power, a shower and this time free laundry facilities. After picking up groceries and ice, we sat at the dock reading and catching up on our laundry.

Newark, New York

Free Laundry Facilities!

Leaving Newark

Our destination this morning was Seneca Falls. Each day Les tells me the itinerary and I half listen. So when I went to bed Sunday night, I thought I heard him say that we had three locks to go through on Monday. The next morning, he told me we had eight! What? I thought you said three! Oh, that's on the Seneca-Cayuga canal, we have five to go through on the Erie Canal first. 

We left at 8:00am, when the locks open to head to Seneca Falls, the birth place of the Women's Rights movement. On the  way we passed through the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, where we witnessed the majesty of God's birds: blue heron, bald eagle, osprey, kingfisher and a crow.

Blue Heron

Bald Eagle

We made it through the locks with no incidence. That is always good. Mostly if you make a mistake in the lock, you look foolish, but it also can smash up the bow or the motor, if you don't have a good handle on the process. 

Lock 25 on the Erie Canal, one of five for the day

Les holding his end of the boat in the lock.

Double lock on Cayuga-Seneca Canal 

The lock filling up and water seeps through gate.

[We experienced the goodness of rest and the beauty of nature, and some more invigorating work through the locks, but if you really want to hear about God's goodness read to the end.]

It was raining off and on all day. When we arrived in Seneca Falls it had subsided. We walked uptown to find a grocery to get some lettuce. (Forgot to buy that in Newark.) Instead we found more delicious bread, an apple fritter loaf. 

We were near the Women's Rights National Historic Park, so we stopped in to see how late they were open and tour times. We decided to watch their informational movie, as the tours were over for the day. When we came out of the movie, it was pouring outside. So we browsed the gift shop. Once the rain let up, we headed back to the boat to think about starting dinner.

As we walked towards the dock, we noticed that our boat had been moved down about four spots. We thought that odd. And then we noticed a man tying off another boat near ours. We figured he had just arrived, so we offered to help him tie up. Once we started talking to him, we realized that the goodness and mercy of God does exist in the land of the living.

While we were away, someone came by and randomly untied both boats. George was rescuing the boats. Apparently, his wife was waking up from a nap and noticed our boat was next to the dock wall with just its stern against the wall, then the boat turned some more and started bow first floating towards their boat. That's when she got George out to stop the boat and tie it up. We were just appalled that someone would do such a thing. For no reason other than possibly a prank. 

We helped George secure the other boat. They invited us over to visit after we checked on our boat. We enjoyed getting their take on the canal and hearing about their adventures in life; they have been boating for 52 years.

Later that evening, we all consoled another very distraught couple, when they arrived back to their boat. We could see on their faces that they believed they had almost lost their boat. George retold the rescue story and the guy gave him a big bear hug. 

At the end of this day, Les said, "Well, I think I've had just about enough excitement for one vacation." Tonight, we go to bed thanking God for watching over us and for meeting good people along the way.

At Rest: Free from Anxieties

 

 

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

(Mark 1:12-13 ESV)

 

 

As I enter the fifth week of Lent, I wonder how Jesus felt as He endured the last weeks of His stay in the desert. Those forty days, where the Spirit carried Him out to a desolate place, the place where He was tempted by the devil. Did Jesus know it was going to be a forty day experience? He had to be hungry, tired and anxious for the time to be over. Was He tempted to walk out of the desert? What kept Him there? What keeps me stayed on this Lenten journey?

 

I find the duration of Lent less engaging than Advent. Advent lends itself to much anticipation. Lent lingers and opens up my soul to lament. Even though I have been focusing more on a "honeymoon" attitude this year, basking in His love, the reality of Jesus' suffering on the way to the cross haunts me, places me in a somber mood.

 

Although we are no longer under the actual shadow of the cross, we feel its burden. And yet we can rejoice, because we are living in the light of His resurrection.This dichotomy of His death and resurrection, simultaneously causes me grief and joy.

 

Bear with me in this angst of soul, I want to come with tidings of great joy. Yet the message of the gospel embodies both death and life, in that Jesus died and Jesus lives, so I must grapple with both. And I am most thankful that He asks me to remember both, not just one or the other.

 

I confess that I am tempted to gloss over the rough days ahead as we anticipate the week of  Jesus' passion, (passion comes from the Latin word for suffering) and I desire to go directly to the glories of the resurrection. But there is wisdom in mourning, as it leads to comfort.

 

So I will rest with my Beloved, and recall His grief, as well as His triumph over death.

 

 

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

(Matthew 11:28 NIV)

 

Ennui: A Feeling of Weariness

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

(Matthew 11:28-30 The Message)

Swing: To Move Along Rhythmically

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)

 

 

Linking up with:

 

 



 

 

Expedition: A Journey Undertaken for a Specific Purpose

 “… the Holy Spirit compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness.”

Mark 1:12 NLT

 

 

Over the next forty days, I am planning to go on a spiritual expedition. A spiritual experiment of sorts. Not a forty day fast. Nor a forty day retreat, but forty days of preparation. Forty days from today marks the weekend before Thanksgiving. The weekend after Thanksgiving will mark the forty days of Advent.

As the end of this year approaches, I am surprised by an invitation to continue to rest. I started out the year with a forty day Sabbath, seeking to be ready for what I hoped would be a new season of encouraging women in my home. I wanted to offer a place to retreat and be refreshed by God. This vision birthed out of my own desire to practice more solitude in the midst of a world that distracts so easily.

Even last year, this desire was growing. I wrote about it in a journal entry dated: Tuesday, June 22, 2011.

 

“…but what I really want is my life to matter. To enjoy what I have—to share what I have with others. Out of the overflow of this…I long to invite women to retreat and be refreshed, renewed and restored.”

By now, I thought I would be offering day retreats in my home to weary souls. Yet God in his ability to see beyond my thoughts has invited me to wait in His presence. To soak in His Word and rely on Him as the Spirit moves me into this “wilderness” season.

Jesus was led into the wilderness for forty days. We know that part of the purpose was a testing, but I think mostly it was a time of preparation. And that is the specific purpose that leads me to a season of staying home more, reading more and praying with intention to discover and develop ideas that have been whirling around my heart, soul and mind. To test them, and see if this is the direction God would have me to go.

Pray for me as I embark on this expedition. You may hear more musings about it here. Who knows? I just know that I must follow hard after Jesus, and trust Him to lead me on into New Frontiers.


Linking up with:

Retreat or Run?

Or you can do both in one day!

 

 

Jesus invites us to come...for rest and for life and for mission.

 

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

 

Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)

 

 

We are the bride of Christ, the army of God, a force to be reckoned with when we accept the invitation to be called by our given name. (Click here to download a song that makes me smile.)

 

 

 

At the retreat we were invited to "run hard after God" through the song, One Pure and Holy Passion by Passion:

 

 

Give me one pure and holy passion
Give me one magnificent obsession
Give me one glorious ambition for my life
To know and follow hard after you
To know and follow hard after you
To grow as your disciple in the truth
This world is empty, pale, and poor
Compared to knowing you my Lord
Lead me on and I will run after you

In the afternoon, I ran in a 5K. The run was good for my health, but the cause moves my heart. Check out FORJ-MO. An invitation from a group of passionate people for us to pursue mercy and justice for all, especially our youth.

 

 

 

Linking up with:

 

    

 

 Sister Sundays

Rest: Peace of Mind or Spirit

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:

"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it."

Isaiah 30:15 NIV

 

North Point Marina

The Intuition Diaries

The first day of our trip a small craft advisory kept us at rest. We weren’t able to leave the marina as the waves were too high for safe travel. The next day we embarked on the first day of boating, we were well rested after a day of eating, napping and exploring the North Point Marina grounds. On our day of rest, we celebrated Les’ birthday. I made Les dinner and I told him that I had a surprise…I was going to take him on a trip around Lake Michigan. He laughed.

For his birthday dessert, I made brownie waffles with strawberries on top.

We left the marina early Monday morning to cruise the 67 miles to our next port. While we puttered along the Wisconsin coast of the lake, I was thinking.

 I often ask Les what he is thinking and he will reply, “Nothing.”

I find this difficult to believe because my mind never seems to rest. I noticed while I was busy thinking that I either recall the past or project into the future. One minute I am thinking about all the fun times we had on previous vacations, and then the next thing I know,  I am wondering what’s for lunch or where will be headed the next day.

I asked Les about his ability to think about nothing. He admitted that he enjoys the present. He explores the scenery around him. He pays attention to the charts and the direction the boat is headed. He lives in the moment. I admire him. I can do this occasionally, but it truly takes discipline for me to rest and remain in the moment.

The trip today started out calm, and about halfway through our trip the waves started getting choppy. This caused the boat to bounce, which caused me to get a bit uneasy and queasy. I tried everything to enjoy the moment, including taking a nap.

 After my nap, Les asked if I wanted to drive and I declined. About an hour away from our destination, I decided I did want to drive and Les gave the helm over to me.

I was amazed at how I went from restlessness to restful once I had something to concentrate on. Rest takes many forms. It can be sleep, which actually renews our bodies. It may be just letting your mind enjoy the scenery around you. For me I need something to help me rest, so I rested my mind on the task at hand.

Once we got to Port Washington, Wisconsin, I was feeling relaxed. I was at rest, free from anxiety. We continued our rest by wandering around the town, eating a late lunch at Beanies (best fajitas ever!). We ended our day by riding our bikes on a local trail and eating ice cream for dinner.