Sunday Devotional With Mr. E: REST

I have a habit of burning the candle at both ends.  I do like to be busy, but I also have difficulty balancing all the "good" things that come my way. I just don't want to miss out!  This can get you in trouble if you are not careful.  In college I took many semesters of 18 credit hours, worked at least 20 hrs a week as a supervisor of a food court, was very involved in a campus ministry,  and was plugged into & serving at a local church.   At the end of one of my craziest semesters, I found myself awake for almost three days straight.  I had so many projects to complete, so many activities demanding my attention, and so many extra shifts as people often called off work at semester's end (so they can study or finish projects).  I had no time to sleep.  Even if I did, I could not truly find rest knowing all the work I had to do.  At one point I crawled up on the table in the fiber studio and tried to take a nap. I laid their unable to quite my mind or close my eyes.  All of the work, all of the obligations, all of the expectations...were all on me.  However, the time & work load were not as consuming as the pressure I was placing on myself. I was too stressed to find rest.  

Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him.

Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress,

I will never be shaken.  Psalm 62: 1-2

When we look around our world today....we find people that are under constant stress.  Some of which is self made (lets be honest...most of which is self made).  The stress steals joy, prevents people from giving more of themselves (mentally, physically, emotionally, relationally, or financially), and keeps people from being the person they were truly created to be.  God has not called us to a stressed life.  Not that there won't be stresses in our life ("In this world you will have trouble!"), but that we know where we find our rest! When we can see God as our rock, our salvation, our fortress....how can we shaken/stressed.  We can close our eyes and rest knowing that God has us in his hands.  We can find peace in this truth, and not by the power of our own making (which will always eventually fail us!).