Rest Time with God
Part 1 of 3
Ya’ll. (Okay, so those of you who know me personally know I’m not from the south, nor have I ever lived there. But, I like, “Ya’ll.” It’s simple and concise. So, roll with it, okay? Great, thanks.)
I LOVE talking about my rest time with God. Why? The short answer: because it’s life changing. And I have the utmost confidence it will be for you too! So, here’s my story. And then we’ll talk about what it might look like for you and why you should do it too. Besides the obvious fact that it’s life changing, like I already said.
In late 2018, God laid it on my heart to have rest time with Him. It kind of felt like it came out of the clear blue sky. Yes, I had pretty regular ‘quiet time’ with Him, which came in varied forms. (I use the term ‘quiet time’ loosely because I know it’s turned into somewhat of a polarizing term. No need to split hairs here.) I took every second of my vacation time available to me at work, but was I being intentional about rest? Probably not.
I’m now closing in on the end of my seventh year of this practice. It’s become just one vital factor in the pursuit of my relationship with Him. People often ask where this practice came from, and all I can say is that it came from Him. I have no recollection of reading a book or hearing a sermon or listening to a podcast that prompted me to this action. I wasn’t even in some seemingly special season of life to warrant an additional action. But, He continued to gently whisper this thought of rest with Him to me. And we know that when God repeats things, they’re important! We should listen!
So, I was left trying to figure out what that meant and what that looked like. If you know me, that meant I got to work googling, researching, and reading about how to rest. I might be a bit of a nerd. And anal retentive. (I blame it on the doctorate!) Anyhow, I read everything I could find about what rest time should look like—how to do it properly as every good little girl (GLG) should. And trust me, there are plenty of opinions out there about this topic.
I believed that there was a right way and a wrong way to do it—there was a firm list of dos and don’ts, I just hadn’t come across it yet (actually, this isn’t all true!). If I’m being perfectly honest, I was probably well entrenched in flirting with the line of legalism. And that’s when the anxiety started rising. I mean, come on, I was meeting with the Creator of the Universe…I didn’t want to mess this up! No pressure! I’m sure God was highly amused, albeit unsurprised by my approach.
What would it look like to intentionally set time apart where my sole focus was on God? How long should it last? How should I spend my time? What fruits could come from this practice? Where should it occur? There were so many things I didn’t know! I had never had such an intentional practice modeled for me before, and I wasn’t quite sure where to start.
But, if my eyes were fixed on God, I knew it was going to be good… These rest times have now become intentional life rhythms, and I can’t imagine not having them in some form. While I know my future life seasons may change what they look like today, I pray that they’re here to stay.
Have you ever considered an intentional rest time with God? What did that look like for you? What was the best part? I love to hear more about your experiences! Share them on insta with #glginremission.
Stay tuned to Part 2 of this series next week to learn more about what my rest time looks like.
- Lani
