Daily Devotional December 3 - Rest

 "Thus saith the LORD, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein." Jeremiah 6:16

The old paths here are not archaic ways of living, like somehow we should think down on modernity or that technology is inherently against God or any silly notion like that. The old paths is referring to the original intent for living a life/lifestyle commensurate with being a child of God. 

I hope you seek rest for your soul. I have asked many people about this rest and most haven't found it or experienced it. Rest for your soul comes when you are fulfilling your purpose in life, when you are walking in alignment with the will of God, when you have taken time to be with God and He gives you rest. 

To have rest you need to be free of wrestling with unresolved issues in your life. Unresolved issues eat at your peace of mind and allow time for doubt to grow into something unrecognizable and sometimes unmanageable. Unresolved issues means that there are uncertainties that linger and could go either way, the kind that infect your thinking like a virus. Doubt sets in and you begin to lose the inner battle. You start to make decisions that are not sound and turn to ways and people that cannot help you. You begin to second guess God and doubt that He has any interest in your situation. You pick up the ball and run with it and while you are running you are running away from the source of your rest. Once you have made up your mind, it is difficult to recant. The level of loss of peace that you can reach while running with the ball and away from God is never ending. At some point you have got to say, Stop!! I'm done with running and hiding. I will return to where I left off and talk to God and resolve this thing.

That's where rest is found. Going back and facing up and taking responsibility and talking to and listening to God. Laying your burden at the feet of the Lord and reading and following the instructions from the Bible that have been there from old. Modernity is not our enemy and neither are the old ways outdated or archaic. It would do you well to seek the face of God on this issue. He has planned a rest for you, right in the middle of the storm.

You have to apply some faith here. We are not perfect and we all have done things that can never be made right. That's what's so exciting about God's economy. If you have even a little faith and have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you are offered rest and peace with God as if you have never done anything wrong ever. Most people aren't comfortable with this kind of freedom, because it does not mirror the ways of mankind. If you are basing what God is like by the behavior of men/women, you will remain displeased and unable to ever have rest. Rest comes freely from God to you, but you have to believe it to receive it.