Find rest, oh my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from Him.
Ps 62:5
Yesterday, I was studying my critical care textbook and reviewing how the heart works. The heart has its own circulatory system that is a wonder to behold.
The body receives it’s nutrients through the heart actively pumping blood through the body. That little muscle in your chest beats, relaxes, and beats again thousands of times a day. During that process and with every heartbeat, dozens of electrolytes and other chemicals are constantly shifting around to charge, fire, and recharge its own electrical system that keeps it functioning normally. It is a wonder of God’s engineering that in most cases, it does this constantly and flawlessly for 80+ years of our existence.
However, the heart itself has a slightly different way of receiving its life. While the rest of our bodies depend on the heart doing its job to actively pump blood around miles of piping, it receives its nourishment while it is resting in between beats. You see, once the heart pumps it's nutrient rich blood into the main vessel that carries the blood to the body, a valve slaps shut and the a backpressure is created within that vessel (from it stretching) that pushes blood backward into the vessels that supply the heart. While the heart is beating, the valve leafs cover the openings to those vessels, so if the heart never rested it would starve and die.
As I was worshipping this morning, I thought back to the lesson I reviewed the previous day and heard the Holy Spirit speaking to me. He brought to mind the way that the natural heart works, and said the same thing applies to our spirit. Our spirit only can gain nourishment when we are at rest. It is our flesh that is satisfied with always moving, always being active, always doing something. It is like our body- depending on the activity of the heart to survive.
However, spiritually, our spirit and soul is like our heart- it is dependant upon a source outside its own work and activity in order to live. Our spirits need rest in order to grow, in order to mature, and simply to survive in an increasingly broken and messed up world.
Learn to take time to simply stop and rest. Turn off the TV, the computers, the cell phones, and just spend time with God. All the things in life that distract you are like the valve leaves of the heart- blocking the life sustaining power from getting to where it needs to go.
Learn to rest in His presence. It will feel strange at first- all your Christian life you have been told to do something during your God time- pray, worship, read the bible. Those activities are vitally necessary for Christian growth and I am not trying to diminish them.
However, we have lost the ability to simply sit and rest in His presence and allow Him the chance to refresh us, to speak to us, and to simply fellowship and love on us.
I am finding more and more that above all other “Christian” things we do, the key to growing
in Him is this simple thing- learning to rest in Him.
Love and blessings,
my hope comes from Him.
Ps 62:5
Yesterday, I was studying my critical care textbook and reviewing how the heart works. The heart has its own circulatory system that is a wonder to behold.
The body receives it’s nutrients through the heart actively pumping blood through the body. That little muscle in your chest beats, relaxes, and beats again thousands of times a day. During that process and with every heartbeat, dozens of electrolytes and other chemicals are constantly shifting around to charge, fire, and recharge its own electrical system that keeps it functioning normally. It is a wonder of God’s engineering that in most cases, it does this constantly and flawlessly for 80+ years of our existence.
However, the heart itself has a slightly different way of receiving its life. While the rest of our bodies depend on the heart doing its job to actively pump blood around miles of piping, it receives its nourishment while it is resting in between beats. You see, once the heart pumps it's nutrient rich blood into the main vessel that carries the blood to the body, a valve slaps shut and the a backpressure is created within that vessel (from it stretching) that pushes blood backward into the vessels that supply the heart. While the heart is beating, the valve leafs cover the openings to those vessels, so if the heart never rested it would starve and die.
As I was worshipping this morning, I thought back to the lesson I reviewed the previous day and heard the Holy Spirit speaking to me. He brought to mind the way that the natural heart works, and said the same thing applies to our spirit. Our spirit only can gain nourishment when we are at rest. It is our flesh that is satisfied with always moving, always being active, always doing something. It is like our body- depending on the activity of the heart to survive.
However, spiritually, our spirit and soul is like our heart- it is dependant upon a source outside its own work and activity in order to live. Our spirits need rest in order to grow, in order to mature, and simply to survive in an increasingly broken and messed up world.
Learn to take time to simply stop and rest. Turn off the TV, the computers, the cell phones, and just spend time with God. All the things in life that distract you are like the valve leaves of the heart- blocking the life sustaining power from getting to where it needs to go.
Learn to rest in His presence. It will feel strange at first- all your Christian life you have been told to do something during your God time- pray, worship, read the bible. Those activities are vitally necessary for Christian growth and I am not trying to diminish them.
However, we have lost the ability to simply sit and rest in His presence and allow Him the chance to refresh us, to speak to us, and to simply fellowship and love on us.
I am finding more and more that above all other “Christian” things we do, the key to growing
in Him is this simple thing- learning to rest in Him.
Love and blessings,
