Find Rest, Weary Soul, in God Alone

Photo captured as a photojournalism student in college—one of my earliest experiments with slow exposure photography.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30

In light of the New Year, people are making all sorts of resolutions which, personally, I'm all about! The New Year always fills me with a fresh surge of hope and anticipation and I love the chance to reset. In fact, writing one post per day on this blog is one of my resolutions for this year.

But in the midst of trying to accomplish, and achieve, and do things better this year than the last, I also want to remind my soul to rest in God and remember the wisdom that, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep" (Psalm 127: 1-2).

I got a book a few months ago called Sacred Rest by Christian physician Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith. In her book, Dr. Dalton-Smith talks about the seven types of rest and you can take a short assessment to find out which areas you might be deficient in. At the end of the book there is a link to the Sacred Rest Challenge where you can sign-up to receive 30 daily soulful Rx's, with simple encouragements each day to live from a more restful perspective. If you're interested in fighting against the tide of our culture's hustle and bustle with a month's worth of daily encouragements to rest, click here.

Cheers to a rest-filled 2024.

P.S. If you need an extra dose of peace today, listen to this song Peace, My Mind by Common Hymnal.