Soulfood

Ed Welch

Alasdair Groves – the enemy loves to keep us restless, tired, and feeling separated from the gentle and lowly one who calls us to rest in him – Jesus.

Rest appears early in Scripture – in the first few verses, the rhythm of work and sleep (time of rest) is established in the cycles of day and night, morning and evening. The culmination of the work of creation is the Sabbath rest. We rest because we trust that God is always sovereign, so we can rest while He never sleeps nor slumbers.

Matthew 18, 1 Peter 5:6,7 – Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, ⁷ casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Psalms 3, 4 and 5 insert (or assert) YHWH into our daily lives. Hebrew scriptures view evening as symbolic of the time of rest (taking instruction from Genesis 1). Psalm 4:8 “In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, O YHWH, make me dwell in safety.”

The Hebrew calendar provides time for rest in addition to the weekly sabbaths – some 40 days of time set aside for feasting and resting. Ceasing from work (including the jubilees) is an act of faith for God’s people.

Rest is founded on listening to God and speaking to Him. Humility listens. Psalm 46 “Be still [rest] and know that I am God.” But we struggle to stop! YHWH also tells us to STOP our idolatrous practices.

The Father calls us to come closer, to settle in, to listen. “You are my treasured possession!” As children, we try to listen but must fight against our restlessness. God asks us, “what’s wrong?” The psalter is full of God’s probing of our hearts and asking us what is wrong, seeking to provoke us to stop and think and listen. And the Psalms also call us to answer YHWH, to speak our hearts back to Him.

The longer we converse with God the better it gets. He keeps asking us, “what do you know about me that is true?”

So there are 3 things God does for us:

1. He calls us to stop.
2. He tells us He loves us and asks us what is wrong.
3. He reminds us of truths about Himself.

What are some truths about God that comfort us and give us rest? He is a warrior who fights for His people. He has provided for all my needs. He hears our cries – all of them! He meets with us whenever we come to Him (and often when we don’t!).

Speaking to and listening to God brings us to a place of rest.

Faith and rest are inextricably intertwined.

Dick Gaffin – “restless rest.” Our restlessness is one that seeks rest, and faith rests in the midst of our restlessness. James 4 “If the Lord wills it, we will do such and such” must be our mindset – we can rest because God is in control, not us. We are invited to rest as children because the outcome of everything we do is outside of our control – it is the Lords.

Psalm 62 “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation…”