It’s Sunday, for some a day of rest. It doesn’t matter who you are. In your heart, you long for a lasting rest. We are always searching for it, for a way to be filled up. And on Sundays I journal and pray about rest. Won’t you breathe and read slowly and think on this one thing? Won’t you stay and be still with me for a few spectacular, ordinary moments? 

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Thus says the Lord, “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” But they said, “We will not walk in it.” (Jeremiah 6:16 ESV) *

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So often of late, I have caught myself feeling listless and unmotivated, and not going anywhere. Not doing much, yet still tired. I am starting to see that inactivity is not rest. Do you have those moments of realization, that you have been living with a focus on yourself and your comfort, rather than on God’s high purposes? This verse came to mind today because my soul needs rest and I haven’t been pursuing it. I am like those who chose not to walk in the good way, the way that would bring peace and rest. I know what it’s like to be living in step with God, and yet I still have the foolish tendency to forego that goodness for myopic, purposeless things.

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May we today renew our fervor for the living God, and may He renew our hearts to crave Him and His wholeness. Amen.

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*Contrast this verse with Proverbs 14:12, about another kind of way. There really isn’t a middle option, friends. It’s all Jesus or nothing.