Tag: Rest

Devotionals

Need Rest? Pray Confidently   

Loring Schultz

Read: Psalm 3:1-8 NLT – Psalm 3 – A psalm of David, regarding – Bible Gateway

“I cried out to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy mountain. I lay down and slept, yet I woke up in safety, for the LORD was watching over me.” Psalm 3:4-5 NLT

Photo by Shane on Unsplash

Trying to fall asleep when you have something heavy on your mind is almost impossible. You’ve try some of the latest sleep aids on the market and they do not work. The old cliché ‘try counting sheep’ never worked even after downing a glass of warm milk as most grandmothers recommended back in the day. But when our minds are preoccupied with current troubles it is hard to shake them off. It’s difficult just to find a few minutes when our minds are completely still from the noise of the day in order to relax and fall asleep. There is one method I recommend if you haven’t tried it recently and that is following King David’s method of praying confidently.

The king of Israel was being undermined by his own son Absalom who was after his father’s throne to the point that war had broken out between the two camps. (2 Sam. 15-18) King David was being pursued by Absalom and his army as he fled Jerusalem. David wrote Psalm 3, a psalm of praying confidently, during this time which also served as encouragement for many other future battles throughout Israel’s history.

David let out his frustrations as he began the psalm, “O LORD, I have so many enemies; so many are against me.” (Ps.3:1 nlt) He is letting the Lord know what He already knows, but David still laments over his situation. People were beginning to say that even God would not recue him, that all is lost. Imagine now trying to go to sleep under these conditions with Absalom’s army all around you.  But David knew of God’s protection and how He is able to sustain him and bring through this. So, he cried out to the Lord, praying confidently, and the Lord heard him and answered him. And David wrote, “I lay down and slept, yet I woke up in safety, for the LORD was watching over me.” (Ps.3:5 nlt)

We too can have the same confidence that the Lord will put our thoughts and minds at rest in the evening hours to get the sleep we need despite our troubled thoughts. David was able to rest comfortably with an aggressive army surrounding him knowing God will protect and watch over him, and he will awake in safety. I recommend you try it. According to David, it works.

Devotionals

Your Resting Place

Loring Schultz

“Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’” Mark 4:38 NIV

            Have you ever been so exhausted that you can sleep through anything? A violent thunderstorm just outside your window doesn’t even make you flinch, if you do hear it, it is music to your ears. Spending the night in unfamiliar surroundings with strange noises have no effect on you, it is as if you are in the comfort of your own bed at home. You are beat down tired, weary, exhausted, and you are looking only for a place to rest. You are not concerned with the accommodations for you have found, what you are looking for is a resting place.

            Our Lord Jesus found such a place. The occasion is recorded for us in the gospel of Mark. One evening after a long day of teaching, Jesus and His disciples left for the day. They got into a boat and proceeded to cross over the Sea of Galilee. It was customary to keep a pillow under the coxswain’s seat. One can imagine Jesus in his weariness spotting that pillow and grabbing it for the trip across the sea.  It is hard for us at times to remember that Jesus Himself got weary. After all He is God the Son, but He was also a man. Fully God and fully man, the God-man. Jesus experience physical weariness and exhaustion as we all do.

            This should serve as a comfort to us in our exhausting moments. Jesus knows firsthand how it feels to be worn-out and tired, He’s been there. But not only does He feel your pain, He is able to do something about it. Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

            Are you tired, weary, and in need comfort and rest? Reach out to Jesus who will hand you the pillow from His coxswain’s seat, for He is navigating the boat, ‘Your Resting Place.’.

Read the rest of the story:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+4%3A35-41&version=NIV