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My life for the past few weeks has been so different than I expected. Between weather and health I have been nearly housebound. My children are cranky, and mommy is worse. My life feels small, closed and limited. But then I opened a new devotional my mom bought me called Jesus is Calling. As I opened to the daily reading it was exactly what I needed to hear. Don’t resent times of forced stillness. Look for God in them. So here I am, trying to open my heart and listen for his voice. In my tiny, freezing living room amid piles of laundry and not even the briefest thoughts for dinner. My situation may have temporarily forced me to be inactive but I can choose to be still.
As I lay my exhausted body down to sleep last night, I whispered the same repeated prayer, “Please give me rest, I need Your rest.” This is also a choice. Inactivity isn’t rest either unless I let it be. I need to set aside the worry over what I cannot do, all the must be left undone and what the next weeks and months may hold. I rest in His strength. He has it all under control. This is easier to say than to do. Sometimes it’s as simple as closing my eyes and taking a deep breath or letting a spontaneous hug from one of my kids extend into a cuddle. Letting them know I love them, even if I can’t do all the things I usually do with them.
Because we all having something to learn from stillness and rest.
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Beautiful. I had the flu, then a sinus virus type thing and now dealing with some issues with high bp and many tests. I’ve been in the house two weeks and I think God is saying slow down. I opened my Bible this morning to Psalm 62 and 63. Wow.
It’s interesting how our “low times” can be close times with God, if we are willing to accept them. Glad you’ve discovered this too.
I so appreciated the timeliness of reading your post! I loved how you mentioned not resenting the times of forced stillness. I’m writing that nugget down. I too am in a season of forced stillness from physical health and 7 ft of snow and rest is not easy. Thanks for sharing your heart. So helpful to me today.
Syndal, it’s rather a new concept for me too. It never really occurred to me before that forced stillness can be a good thing, if I change my attitude about it.