Need Rest?

Maybe it was a startling dream or barking dog.  Maybe nature called or the smoke alarm started chirping.  Whatever it was…it woke you up and there you are lying wide awake in the middle of the night and you can’t fall back to sleep.  Your body needs rest to function, especially with all you have on your plate, but you can’t seem to get it. What are you to do?  I suppose you could try counting sheep.

Body’s need rest but so do souls. How many things are robbing your soul of the rest it craves?  Is a relationship on the rocks?  Have deadlines at work pushed you past your limit? Do you miss someone who’s gone or maybe you’re upset because you missed an opportunity? Maybe you’ve done something horrible and the guilt is weighing you down.  Whatever it is…your soul needs rest but you can’t seem to get it.  What are you to do?  Try counting…not sheep but blessings.

That’s what the psalm writer did.  “For you, LORD, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the LORD, in the land of the living.” When your soul needs rest, count how many tears he has dried in your lifetime with his promises of protection and love?  He’ll continue to do that for you whether those tears are because you miss a loved one or your struggling with someone else.   Count how many times has his picked you up with his strong and mighty arms when you’ve stumbled?  He’ll continue to do that when you end up stumbling over deadlines or missed opportunities.

But of all the blessings you can count there is none greater than the deliverance from death he supplied in Jesus.  With the blood of his own Son, he took all your guilt away and gave you undeserved but unlimited access to walk with the Lord  for all time in joys of heaven. God has been so good to you and he will continue to be good to you. You can count on that.

Keeping counting on that and before you know it, your soul will be fast asleep, getting the rest it craves.

Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD, has been good to you. – Psalm 116:7


See previous devotions HERE.