Permeating Rest

Permeating Rest 
His Desire and Design
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In my writing from October 11, Coming Home for the Holy Days, I shared ways our faith in Yeshua (Jesus) is true, high, and distinct from all other worldviews or so-called “religions.” Here are three of many ways:

• He is personal. He knows every detail of our lives and loves us each uniquely.
  
  
• He was foretold. The Scriptures foretell the life of Yeshua in detail hundreds of years before His birth leaving no doubt that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!
  
  
• He is a gift. There is nothing we can do to gain access to Him. There is no “working our way up” or “getting points for our good deeds.” There is no “karma” that repays us, else we would all be doomed. There is no “finding ourselves” since we only see ourselves when in relationship with the One Who created us. There is ONLY Yeshua. He paid our debt and set us free to love Him and others with no fear of the future. This is, indeed, the Good News!

When we receive God’s gift of Yeshua, we enter a covenant with Him that is abundant. One of His gifts is rest. Rest is not just a part of our lives; rather God desires rest to permeate every facet of our lives.

The Hebraic/Biblical perspective on our nature does not separate our emotions, feelings, mind, body, soul, and spirit by putting them each in their own box. Every part is connected and overlapping with the other parts. Here are just a few of innumerable examples:

• The thoughts in our minds are manifested in our feelings and in the health of our bodies.
• Our emotions (fear, stress, joy, grief) affect our physical bodies and perceptions.
• Toxic food adversely affects our minds and emotions. Nourishing food allows our bodies to rest as we work and play, helping our digestive and other processes to give us a clear mind.
• Exercise gives rest by freeing us from the stress of sedentariness. The oxygen we breathe and the light we take into our eyes brings rest. Exercise renews our brain, our minds, and our outlook.
• Disease and sickness may cause depression.

Although we are assailed on many fronts by unrest whether in our physical health, in the news, or otherwise, God designed us to pursue rest. This permeating rest is called shalom.

Weekly Rest
Our Father God established one full day of rest each week from our normal activities to be refueled for the week ahead. (Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 20:8-11; Leviticus 23:1-2) Our Hebrew Lord, Yeshua, kept this Sabbath day. In the Gospel accounts, we see how He defined and fulfilled the Sabbath by clarifying its original purpose – a day of refreshment, healing, good deeds, and teaching. (See Matthew 12:1-12; Mark 1:21). Even after His death and before His resurrection, Yeshua rested in the tomb on the Sabbath.

Daily Rest
God also created us with the need to physically rest by sleeping for one-third of our lives. No one who ever lived is exempt from this need. During deep, long sleep, God ministers to our minds, emotions, and bodies with healing and recuperation, allowing us to achieve optimal productivity the next day. Scripture says, “…He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.” (Psalm 127:2d) During sleep, He ministers to us in dreams or in ways we will never know. Just after I awake and before I arise, my mind is full of thoughts for the day. Sleep celebrates the close of the day and the beginning of the next.

Spiritual Rest
Deep rest in Yeshua’s atonement strengthens our spiritual immune system from the attacks of our enemy, the Accuser, and from our own spiritual pride and striving. We rest in Him by abiding in His finished work on the cross, by receiving His love, and trusting Him. We have received the Ruach HaKodesh, (the Holy Spirit and Comforter) Whose instruction and guidance always leads to rest.

In Genesis, we find a hidden verse that blossoms off the page in the story of the flood. In Hebraic writing, these blossoms are called hints, because they hint toward deeper, timeless truth. Genesis 8:8 reads:

Noah sent out a dove from the ark to see if the water was abated from the land, “but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him in the ark; for the water was on the surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark to himself.”

The Lord is our rest and safety in this restless world.

Yeshua said to His disciples (Matthew 11:28-30):

“Come to Me, all 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 shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and My burden in light.”

In Yeshua’s day (in first-century Judaism), there were hundreds of rabbis. A disciple would leave home to follow closely with the rabbi to learn the Law (Torah) lived out in word and deed (see Psalm 19:7-11). They considered the Law to be a reflection of God’s heart of love.

Yeshua was raised in a godly home. He was a Pharisee and a Rabbi Who called His disciples by name. They would partake in the labor of learning God’s heart from Him. Their study of His ways would bring rest to their souls. Yeshua lived the Law before them without the impurities added by the religious Pharisees. Indeed, as the incarnate Word, Yeshua’s actions expressed the Law as it was originally intended – the heart of a compassionate and gentle Father, full of desire for their rest and freedom.

Father, we want to follow Yeshua, to learn of Him, listen to His voice, and walk in His ways of rest. The evil in the world is so unsettling. Help us to trust Your Word that gives hope and comfort in the knowledge of Your sovereignty and plan. Keep us at rest in You during the storm.

Flower Girl Greetings art cards about rest:
Be Still (in the Quietness Collection)

Quiet Confidence (in the Quietness Collection)

Yahweh Shalom (in the Hebrew Names of God Collection)

Shale Fragments™ - devotionals by Beth Ann Phifer is a division of Flower Girl Greetings, LLC. ©2020, All Rights Reserved.
Blessings and love in Him,
Beth Ann