Our trip to the beach was amazing for so many reasons. Jeremy and I came home from this trip with a deeper love for each other, our family, God and a refreshed joy for life. There are so many different things that we took away from the trip, but the biggest thing was a new revelation of the importance and value of true REST. It is something the Lord has been teaching both of us more about over the past few months, but during our week at the beach, He gave us such revelation on this. We left feeling like something inside of us had shifted in the most amazing way.
Its hard to sum up all that we took away about this topic of REST, but last night I was reading a great book 'Hosting the Presence', by Bill Johnson, and he wrote something that seemed to simplify all that I have journaled about and come to realize over the past few months on this subject:
'Resting is a beautiful picture of people that no longer feel the pressure to strive to prove themselves. They are comfortable in their own skin.'
Rest is simply living in the confidence of knowing who you are as a son or daughter of the King. Its knowing that you don't have to prove yourself or do something to be accepted. It is knowing that you are enough. You, just you, YOU are enough. You don't have to look a certain way, dress a certain way, or have a certain amount of money ... possessions are irrelevant. You don't have to be married or have kids or have an amazing career or have 1,000 facebook friends. There is no measuring rod for success. Man's opinion doesn't matter, and you aren't afraid of what people think. You don't seek validation, and you don't work to feel worth.
Rest is being so confident in the person that God created you to be that you don't find your worth or self-esteem in what you do or what you possess. Identity and rest are directly connected. When you know who you are and whose you are, you are free to live life unattached to the demands of the world. The God of the Universe crafted you with His own Hands and put you on this earth at this time for a specific reason, and He has told you that all you have to do is to love Him and love people ... life is really so simple. Its all about love.
And that is rest. Living in freedom, unattached to the world, undaunted by the opinion of man, no longer striving or working to be accepted ... Rest is living in your true identity, knowing that you are enough, because you are His, and He is more than enough.
