In this season of heaviness and weariness, God is inviting you into his rhythm for restoration of your soul.
Letting go doesn’t always mean walking away.
Resting isn’t just stopping and sleeping.
When the weight of things gets too heavy and we feel weary we lean into the verses, come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30). We think of Psalm 23 where we go and lie by still waters. We cast the things that have become too much to the Lord (1 Peter 5:7). We need a pause and we need the weight to come off. We need a rest because we’ve run too low on energy and reserves to keep going. This is good, this is of God. He tells us in the bible to do these things. He is speaking to where we are at - we have come to a point where we need to stop and recharge because we have run out of reserve.
But what about the job that needs doing?
Some are weary and so you’re stopping and you’re letting go to God so that you can rest and let him hold the weight. But what happens then with the work that needs to be done? What happens once this time of rest has happened?
Resting in the Lord often doesn’t mean stopping our work. It means doing our work in his rhythm where we have a deep sense of his Lordship over us. It is doing our work with a deep trust in Him to be with us and to guide us, to hold us up.
Letting go usually doesn’t mean washing our hands of the situation or walking away. It means letting go of being God in the situation. It means letting go of being controlling of the situation. It means handing over the reigns to God - he is God and he is to be in charge, he is to be in authority over our lives. He is also over everything he has called us to. It means staying present, fully engaged in the work he has given us without holding the whole weight of the outcome on our shoulders. We yoke with Jesus and let him shoulder the weight. We work in a beautiful partnership with him (Matthew 11:28-30).
When we stop, it’s a short stop to recharge and recalibrate ourselves spiritually, emotionally and physically. God is our Lord and we can trust in him as we do the work he has called us to do. Physically we rest. We step out of the work for a short time and this stopping recalibrates in us that we are not God, that we can trust him with it all and that we submit to God - his rhythm for us is best not just for us but for the world. Then after the stop that is not open ended, we reengage with the work he has called us to do (Ephesians 2:10).
In your weariness, things might have gotten so hard you are collapsing. It has gone well past the tiredness of a week’s hard work and the one day of Sabbath at the end isn’t going to restore you. But when we are doing things God’s way, there is grace on us and on processes that isn’t logical - its supernatural. Resting God’s way is powerful and restorative. So you can begin there, working and sabbathing in his rhythm.
In the heaviness with the weariness you might have let go so much you’ve switched off or walked away. You might have given up. There are many who are spiritually asleep just now from these actions. Holy Spirit is in our midst calling us to move with him, to surrender to him and let him do his great work in us and through us. Many are not noticing his presence or his call because they have let go, disengaged and gone to sleep.
This is a season of rest. Moving in his rest is learning the rhythm of grace. We work but then we stop to rest and then we are present with the Lord in who he is. We are remembering his ways and enjoying being with him. Sabbath.
The end of this year is a season of rest. This means don’t take on new things right now. This doesn’t mean stopping altogether, giving up, walking away or disengaging. It means walk out what you are in, in his way - in his rest. Move in his rhythm - work and rest and work and rest. Let go of controlling it all - entrust yourself and your work to God (Hebrews 4). In this season of rest be recalibrated in the Lord. He is going to be steering you so that restoration happens in your soul. God is restoring souls. To him be the Glory (1 Peter 5:10-11).
Deb Peacock