Off and on for months, I haven’t been sleeping very well. I have rarely woken up feeling like I needed to pray for somebody specific. I also have not been terrified. Essentially, I had no idea why I was not sleeping. Occasionally, I would be able to sleep a whole night when my team prayed for me, but the exhaustion still lingered from weeks before.
Just in the last two days, God started bringing verses to me about rest. It started with a line from the song “In You” by Shane & Shane, which says In You, I find my rest. In the part of Joshua I was reading, I came upon a verse that said, “The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest” (v. 13). I know this passage has more to it and is written to Joshua, but God used it to give me the answer to my sleeplessness. He wants me to find my rest only in Him. It’s in Him that I can the true rest for my soul.
God has continued to bring verses about rest in Hebrews 4 and in other passages. I love that Hebrews connects the rest with God’s chosen people in the Old Testament. It tells that only God’s children can enter His rest and relates that to all of God’s people, who are the believers around the world.
“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His.” Hebrews 4:9-10
So I want to encourage all of you. If you feel drained, exhausted, and as if you have nothing left to give, find rest in Jesus. All of those other idols you are seeking will leave you more worn out. They will steal all of your energy. Stop believing the lies of Satan that they will relax you. They will not fill you; your soul was created for one thing, and that answer is found in the arms of Jesus. Crawl to Him if you have to. Stop searching for rest in everything but Him.
