“From Jesus to you: ‘Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly'” (Matthew 11:28-30, The Message).

God never intended for anyone to be constantly on the go 24/7. He never meant for anyone to always be working and active.

God designed the sabbath as a reminder that we all periodically need rest. We need seasons of refreshment, relaxation, and reenergizing.

The four seasons in nature remind us that there is a time for planting and for harvesting, for growth and rest, for activity and for contemplation.

As much as I love my sleep, I understand that real rest isn’t necessarily taking a nap but living out of a peace that comes from resting in my identity in Jesus as opposed to a ceaseless striving to find myself and prove myself.

Anxiety says that everything has to be done right now. I’ve found that God’s timing is always perfect. I can trust in God’s promises that are as good as done.

“Prayer means letting God’s creative love touch the most hidden places of our being and letting Jesus’ way of the cross, his way of downward mobility, truly become our way. And prayer means listening with attentive, undivided hearts, to the inner movements of the Spirit of Jesus, even when that Spirit leads us to places we would rather not go. . . .

I say this with great compassion: we are living in an upwardly mobile society, a society in which making it to the top is expected in some degree of all of us. And aren’t we tempted to use even the Word of God to help us in this upward mobility? But that is not the way of God, the Father, Son, and Spirit. God’s way is not the way of upward mobility but of downward mobility. You know, as well as I do, that the question we will finally hear is not going to be: ‘How much did you earn during your lifetime?’ or ‘How many friends did you make?’ or ‘How much progress did you make in your career?’ No, the question for us will be: ‘What did you do for the least of mine? What did you do for the lonely in your cities, the prisoners in your country, the refugees within and below your borders, and the hungry all over the world? Have you seen the humiliated Christ in the faces of the poor?’

God has chosen to be revealed in a crucified humanity. That is a very hard realization to come to, yet all authentic prayer will eventually lead us to it. I hope you are able to feel with me our hesitation to let God truly love us in God’s way and to respond fully with our whole being” (Henri Nouwen).

That’s good news. To me, it’s the best news possible.

I can’t exhaust the grace of God, no matter how I try?

There’s nothing you or I can do that will cause God to cease loving us.

There’s nothing that will happen to any of us that will catch God off guard or surprise Him.

There’s nothing that can hinder God’s plans for you or me from coming to fruition.

I’m thankful for the grace of God all the time because it’s the only reason that I’m still here.

May this week be full of reminders that it is not in our efforts or in our good intentions or our best behavior but only because of the grace of God in Jesus that we can know the favor of God and find peace with God.

“When John Kavanaugh, the noted and famous ethicist, went to Calcutta, he was seeking Mother Teresa … and more. He went for three months to work at ‘the house of the dying’ to find out how best he could spend the rest of his life.

When he met Mother Teresa, he asked her to pray for him. ‘What do you want me to pray for?’ she replied. He then uttered the request he had carried thousands of miles: Clarity. Pray that I have clarity.’

‘No,’ Mother Teresa answered, ‘I will not do that.’ When he asked her why, she said, ‘Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.’ When Kavanaugh said that she always seemed to have clarity, the very kind of clarity he was looking for, Mother Teresa laughed and said: ‘I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.’

Maybe what you and I need isn’t clarity but trust. If we could see how the rest of our lives would play out, we probably would rely on our knowledge to get us through.

The better way is to trust that God sees the whole big picture and trust His timing and His ways that have never led us astray.

Gratitude isn’t a feeling. It’s the daily discipline of choosing to see the good over the bad and to see God in all of your circumstances, even the bad ones.

Gratitude isn’t a one and done deal. You have to choose it and seek after it and crave it every single day, or you will default to attitudes of entitlement and/or bitterness and/or apathy.

You can choose to be grateful and thankful even when you don’t feel grateful or thankful. And yes, there’s still always something to be thankful for, even if it’s the breath in your lungs and the beat of your heart.

The command is to give thanks every day in every circumstance– not give thanks for everything but in everything. That is God’s will for you.

Seriously, though. I think I prefer Peppermint Mocha to Pumpkin Spice.

I’m also a fan of the cheg-nogg (chai tea + egg nogg = excellence).

I even have some pepperminty essential oil that I inhale from time to time.

The best part of the year is almost here.

“The greatest blessing God can give us is to put us in a position where we must trust him. This is our only path to joy. He will do whatever is necessary to disrupt our self-sufficiency and illusion of control” (Jim Dennison).

That’s a hard truth.

Here’s another. God wants us to be holy more than He wants us to be happy.

That means that God will allow circumstances and events that might cause temporary unhappiness but will lead to eternal holiness. The eternal always outweighs the temporary.

The one I’m still learning is that God will absolutely give us more than we can handle but not more than He can handle. It’s about destroying that myth of self-sufficiency and the illusion of control.

The Bible says God won’t allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to bear it, but He will put us in situations that go beyond our ability, i.e. what we can do in our own strength, so that we can fall on the grace of God and find out how perfect His strength is in the midst of our weakness.

I don’t want hard lessons. I want ease and comfort. But that’s not where I learn to trust God and hear His voice. That’s not where I sense the nearness of His presence. As Elijah only heard God’s voice after the whirlwind and the raging fire, so God often will speak to us in the midst of difficulties rather than tranquility.

God, help us to walk faithfully where you’ve planted us. Be strong when we are too weak to bear our load. Be near.

Sometimes, that’s what you need– to come to the end of your proverbial rope. Sometimes, you need to reach the limit of your self-sufficiency and your own way of doing things and realize your ever-present need for God.

There is great freedom in saying, “I can’t but You can.”

There is power in confessing your weakness, resting in God’s promise that when we are weakest is when His strength is perfected in us.

For those times when you don’t see how you can manage one more minute, you find that you are able, not through any effort or ability of your own. You find God is able to sustain and carry you.

May this be the day we boast in our weakness and run to God as a little children run to their parents with their need and trust.

May this be the day of our Declaration of Dependence.

It seems to me that when you hold unpopular beliefs, you have two choices: you can either sell out your beliefs and compromise your convictions or you can stand firm in your faith.

If you sell out, what you end up with will be a vague spirituality that offers no hope to anyone and strips the gospel message of its power to save.

If you hold firm, you may feel like you’re standing alone sometimes, but ultimately, the truth will prevail.

For me, I know that it’s not my great faith in God that sustains me but faith in a great God. It’s not me holding on to Jesus but Jesus holding on to me that will enable me to persevere to the end.

These days, it is costing more and more to follow Jesus. We’re getting closer and closer to the day when it very well may cost you your life to proclaim that Jesus and not the almighty state is Lord.

I’m praying that you and I can hold on to what we know from God’s word to be true. I’m praying for the prodigals that they will return to the only faith that can really and truly save.

God, help us all.