One Last Reflection on Rest
I’m finally home safe and sound!
Got a short, but great night’s rest in my own bed last night. There is just something about your own home, your own bed, your own comfortable mattress and pillow that makes you peaceful… restful.
And that’s my last reflection on rest:
How much do peace and rest have in common?
Can you have one without the other?
Can you truly rest if you’re not at peace?
Can you be peaceful if you’re not rested?
One of the nights that I could not sleep in Paris, I laid awake thinking about this. Could I not rest because I wasn’t at peace? And if so, why wasn’t I at peace? Was it because I was in a foreign city with different language and culture? Was it the discomfort of a strange room and an uncomfortable bed?
“You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3
Peace is a fruit of the spirit. It’s an overflow of our heart relationship with God. I was allowing peace to be circumstantial for me, but peace is an attitude of the heart regardless of circumstances.
And I just think it might be related to rest…
What do you think?
Do you think peace and rest go hand in hand?
I just wrote about this last week. I think we can have seasons of unrest, but I don’t think they have to steal our peace. Usually they do go hand in hand, but I think God uses times of unrest to grow us. We can still have the peace that He is in control, but growth is often painful hindering our rest.
For me, peace and rest compliment each other. Thinking on my own state of peace, it has nothing to do with fighting countries but rather my own spiritual fights. Peace comes when I willing accept circumstances with the understanding that God is God and He is in control.
When am I not at peace with my circumstances, I find it difficult to experience physical rest and nearly impossible to experience emotional or mental rest. What is so amazing to me is the way that my precious father created me. He created spiritual conditions like peace or lack thereof to affect me physically. This creates a physical need which requires me to turn to him to for spiritual healing.