Return
to Rest
By Elin Henderson
“Return to
your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.”
Psalms 116:7 (NKJV)
One way or Return are one of the first
things that you click on when you are doing a travel search for airfare
tickets. Return indicates that you started off at some
location. And logically, you want to return there.
We were designed and created for rest, but how much of our lives
today reflect a life of rest? Sadly, very little. Adam and Eve were given God’s
presence, His life, His peace and placed in a perfect place of rest in the Garden
of Eden. All that they needed was provided for them. They simply fellowshipped
with their God each day and looked to Him for all of their needs.
This rest came to an abrupt halt when Satan deceived Eve, and sin
was brought into the world. They ceased to look to God and His provision, and instead
they fell for the lie that there was something “more” out there that they were
missing out on. God’s presence was removed from them as they exited the Garden,
and they were left empty and hopeless in the hands of Satan.
Since then, there has been a futile fight to find that rest
again. We started off there, and we are frantically looking for the return side of that ticket. Rest and the presence of
God are one in the same. Without His presence, we have no rest. Jesus’ death on
the cross bridged that gap that was between ourselves and God, making a way for
that rest to return to us once again through His Spirit’s indwelling presence.
Yet, I know in my own Christian life, rest at times remains
sadly elusive. Struggles come my way and instead of returning to the source of
rest and remembering how God has dealt bountifully with me, I wallow in a state
of worry. I need that reminder. That I have the return ticket in hand: His
presence with me. I need only board the plane and return to that place of
rest, my Garden of Eden, where God and I dwell hand-in-hand, and He is all I
need.
GOING DEEPER:
1. Can you
think of any other examples in Scripture where God’s presence brought rest to
His people? (Hints: A suffering Job.
Daniel with a den full of hungry lions. Three men in a fiery furnace. Paul and
Silas beaten and shackled in a jail cell…just to start you off!)
FURTHER READING:
Oakwood’s missionaries Elin Henderson (a registered nurse) and
her husband Phil serve as church planters with New Tribes in Mozambique,
Africa. Elin is mother to seventeen-year-old
Callie and fourteen-year-old Elias.
