Rest Is What You Need If You Want to Servant-Lead

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Busy.

A word that describes how the majority of people live … just plain o’ busy. But what is tragic to me, (and I was very selective in the descriptive word I just used), is how we can take that wonderful word, a word that defines a life that is “doing” and “accomplishing” and in “movement”, to mean something so negative…as though being “busy” is not a good thing.

We’ll ask people, “How you been?,” and when they answer, “Oh, just been really busy,” we raise our eyebrows, get a little smug thing going and think, “Well, that’s not good. They need to slow down. Got too much on their plate.” Why do we do this? When and how did the word, “busy” become a bad word? Instead of joyously admitting being busy, we rephrase it and say, “My days have been rather full.”  Full?  Hmmmm, I personally prefer the word “busy” because … Jesus was! Jesus was always very very busy! From sun up to sun down, Jesus lived a busy lifestyle. He even admitted it.

Jesus Christ said, “I must be about my Father’s BUSINESS.” (Luke 2:49)  He had to be about the business of why He was sent to this earth. He had to be about the doing and the accomplishing for which He left the glory of heaven. He had to be in movement toward the goal of His commissioning from His Father…the goal of redeeming lives from the pit of eternal damnation and restoring fellowship and peace with God. WHAT A BUSINESS! What a wonderful reason for being busy! What a mission and He maintained that busy lifestyle day after day after day after day.

But being the servant leader that He was and still is, He modeled something that needs to be embraced by all of us who long to be about our Father’s “busy” and in the end hear Him say, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” What did Jesus model? What did He Himself do on a regular basis to sustain the zeal that consumed Him?

He retreated for rest.

Jesus drew away from the busy so He could draw from the Restorer.

When you look at the word, Restorer, you can’t help but notice the first four letters — REST.
God knows we, (as Jesus did), need rest. Having human bodies, not glorified bodies yet, we need to rest our minds, our muscles and the minutes of our days so that we can experience HIS restoration in our lives.

We are here on “purpose” – on “mission” – on “assignment.” And that is all called, “our Father’s business.” We, as sold out servants of the Most High God, will be busy people. And that is not a bad thing. That is not a negative. That is a good and positive thing in our lives. The Lord Himself said that He created us to be His WORKmanship, “For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.” Eph. 2:10.

Every morning, I see this verse by my coffee pot and it reminds me that I’m not here for me. I’m not here for Rip, my children, or for anyone else. I’m here for GOD! And God has prepared since the beginning, good works that I am to walk in day after day. These good works (praise God) include being a wife, a mother, an aunt, a friend and a witness.

These good works also include using the gifts God has given me to serve His church and to serve my family and other people. These good works are going to wear me out at times. These good works are going to make me tired, and in need of REST.

Rest for my body.
Rest for my mind.
Rest for my emotions.
Rest for my spirit.

When Jesus pulled away to rest, He would pray. He would spend stilled hours of the day with His Father…talking, listening and I’m certain, worshipping.

Rip and I have been experiencing lots of “busy” in our home, and for it all, we are so thankful! Interior Inspirations is growing so quickly that we are now at the point that we need to hire folks. We are praying about who these people are that God wants to join us in all the work that needs to be done.

I’m studying/writing with every spare minute He gives me, and preparing to speak at women’s event this August and September. While, “hoping” to have my newest study ready by the fall — “Living Certain In an Uncertain World.” I’ve also been working on a “flippy” that has stayed in my heart for so long now … a 365 day flippy that offers a verse, a 4-5 sentence devotional thought and some fun “home” ideas, tips, etc.

But…

Rip and I want you to know that as we’ve also been intentional in pulling away to sit by the water and enjoy a few nights of nothing but each other, it’s all to be recharged and realigned by His glory. It’s a pulling away to pray, to walk with Jesus in thought and prayer. And to be restored by His speech, His perspective and by His presence. For us, going to the river and fishing is our place of therapeutic rest. There’s just something about being around the water…..

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I know several dear friends and sisters are going through hard times…physical and emotional troubles. And I have to admit…I just wish I could be there to somehow help in some way. Some of you are holding on to the hem of Christ’s garment, knowing that His power alone is enough. Some of you are tired, weary and needing a word from the Lord to sustain you for just another day. Rip and I pray every morning at breakfast for you, and as I’ve been sensing this for a while now, I want to encourage each of you in this way…

Rest.

You need much rest. Especially for the days ahead of you. You need rest.

Schedule a time, if you need to, so that you can literally pull away and be alone with God. “Still” your calendar so that you can draw near to God. Rest for a good long while. Whatever you have to walk away from will be there when you return…return recharged, renewed and rejuvenated.

It’s worth it.

YOU are worth it.

The Father’s business is worth it. You, as Jesus, can’t keep going and going and going without those regular, and I do mean regular times of resting.

So, as soon as you can….

Stop the social media activities.
Stop the constant news feeds.
Stop the hurriedness of your week & your day.
Stop the planning and the productivity long enough ….

and just rest.

Plan to rest if you need to. Schedule a sitter. A weekend getaway just for YOU. Plan that time or you may never get it.

To be the servant-leader Jesus model for us to be, there’s just no way to follow His lead without regular times of rest.

Oswald Chambers wrote a devotional on this precious rest….

“…and I will give you rest. —Matthew 11:28

Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once, asking Him to re-establish your rest. Never allow anything to remain in your life that is causing the unrest. Think of every detail of your life that is causing the disintegration as something to fight against, not as something you should allow to remain. Ask the Lord to put awareness of Himself in you, and your self-awareness will disappear. Then He will be your all in all. Beware of allowing your self-awareness to continue, because slowly but surely it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is satanic. Don’t allow yourself to say, “Well, they have just misunderstood me, and this is something over which they should be apologizing to me; I’m sure I must have this cleared up with them already.” Learn to leave others alone regarding this. Simply ask the Lord to give you Christ-awareness, and He will steady you until your completeness in Him is absolute.

A complete life is the life of a child. When I am fully conscious of my awareness of Christ, there is something wrong. It is the sick person who really knows what health is. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he is the will of God. When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, “Lord, what is your will?” A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer.

If we try to overcome our self-awareness through any of our own commonsense methods, we will only serve to strengthen our self-awareness tremendously. Jesus says, “Come to Me…and I will give you rest,” that is, Christ-awareness will take the place of self-awareness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest— the rest of the completion of activity in our lives that is never aware of itself.”

Christ-awareness is what it really means for us to draw away and enter into a most sacred rest.

And when you come back to the busy, you will see it differently. Your perspective during rest becomes infused with Jesus’ perspective. There is just something that happens when we intentionally choose to rest and sit with Jesus at His feet without being rushed and ransacked by the situations and circumstances of our days.

I’m praying for you. And I know that I know that I know God’s purpose for your life is so saturated with the POWER and LIFE of the Word of God!!! So, please….never forsake that time with Him. Getting in His Word and just soaking in it.

I love you all very much,

lisa

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1 Comment

  1. Dee on March 26, 2018 at 7:17 am

    Thank you for this post! God led me to it when I needed it most. God bless you!

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