If you are looking for rest, Read This

Dearest gentle reader,

For the longest time, I had been running.

Running from pain.

Running from being misunderstood.

Running from the fear of what might go wrong.

Running from hurt.

I had no idea what lay ahead. I just kept running, trusting that someday I would find solid ground. Somewhere I could finally lay my head and rest.

Because, honestly, I was tired.

Tired of the dysfunctionality I had inherited from my background.

Tired of looking in the mirror and seeing parts of me that were still broken.

Tired of hurting.

Tired of constantly feeling like I had to figure everything out.

Sometimes, I wondered if rest would finally come when I got married. Perhaps when I became an adult. Maybe when I achieved certain things, reached certain places, or finally had my life together.

I thought rest was somewhere ahead of me.

Then one day, while my heart was crying out to God in agony, asking Him to help me find rest, He asked me a question:

“Do you know that I am your resting place?”

And suddenly, it dawned on me.

God is my resting place.

He is my refuge.

My ever-present help in trouble.

My solid ground.

The place I have been searching for all along.

I thought of Jacob.

Jacob was running too. Running from Esau, uncertain about what awaited him on the other side of his journey. Yet somewhere along that journey, he stopped. He lay his head on a stone, and there, God met him.

Perhaps the place of rest was never merely a physical destination.

Perhaps it was an encounter.

So I asked God, “How exactly are You my resting place?”

And I felt Him teach me something so simple:

You don’t have to spend all your years searching for a place to rest and refuel. I have already given you one.

Your quiet time with Me is that place.

When you wake up in the morning and speak with Me, when you open your Bible, when you sit with Me and allow Me to pour into you before the demands of the day begin—you are being refuelled.

And when you return to Me at night, tell Me about your day, read My Word, release your worries, and lay everything at My feet—you are detoxing from the day.

Rest is not necessarily the absence of movement.

Rest is knowing Who you are moving with.

When you carry the consciousness that God is with me. I am not alone. God is for me. God is in me, you can walk through life without constantly living in fear of what might happen next.

Even when you stumble, you know He is there.

Even when you fall, you know He is steady enough to catch you.

Even when you don’t know what tomorrow holds, you know Who holds tomorrow.

And perhaps that is what it means to walk from rest.

Not that there will never be work.

Not that there will never be battles.

Not that you will never be tired.

But that you don’t have to live from a place of constant striving.

You can work from rest because you have first learnt to rest in God.

So, dearest gentle reader, if you have been running too…

Come home.

Take Him apart at the beginning of your day.

Talk to Him before you talk to the world.

Let Him pour into you before the world begins demanding from you.

Let Him settle your heart before you step into the day.

You may discover that the solid ground you have been praying for isn’t a place you have to reach.

It is a Person you have already found.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Maybe this is the hack after all:

My Shepherd.

My refuge.

My resting place.

Lord, help me not to lose sight of You in the busyness of my daily life. Help me to always carry the consciousness that You are with me.

Teach me to work from rest, walk from rest, live from rest, and find my home in You.

I love You, Father.

Thank You for being with me.

Till I write again,

Your fellow Becoming One,

Oluwatosin 🌹