Week #20 Psalm 62:1 "Resting in God"

"My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him."

I realized last week that I am behind schedule. It is now the 22nd week of the year, and I am blogging for week #20. My mistake. I missed a couple of weeks somewhere in April or May.

But, I also am a firm believer in Romans 8:28, that all things (including my miscalculations) work together for good. So, I may be late in my blogging schedule, but God is blessing my blogging for today, according to His schedule.

What am I talking about? Well, today is Memorial Day. This is a day when we Americans stop and remember those who gave their lives in the service of their country. It's a special day for us in the United States, for the that reason. But, fortunately, it is also special for us because Memorial Day is a national holiday. For most of us, that means we have the day off from our work or school responsibilities. It is a day of rest.

My son is spending the day at Safeco Field watching the Mariners. My husband is doing some simple work around the house and then taking the rest of the day for leisure. On an unusual Monday, we get to rest.

So, I thought about what the Psalmist says here, that our souls find our rest in God alone. It makes me ponder the concept of rest. Resting from our jobs or schoolwork....and resting in God.

For us Americans observing Memorial Day, we are taking a rest from our labor, the occupation that not only supplies our basic needs (via the paycheck we receive), but gives us a sense of identity and purpose. All these things are essential to the human life.

But the Bible also tells us that we have those same things when we put our faith in God. He supplies all our needs (Phil.4:19), give us our identities (1 Pet. 1:9-10) and gives us purpose (John 20:21). So, what's the difference between resting from our jobs, and resting in God?

Simple. Our rest on a holiday is something we earn because we work at our jobs all the other weeks of the year. Our resting in God is something we are gifted with because of the work Jesus did on the cross. We didn't earn it, Jesus did it for us.

This is why our rest in God is so wonderful. We can now cease striving, stop trying to prove our goodness. We can't anyhow.

But we can pray without ceasing. We can fill our mouths with thanksgiving and praise. We can tell God how much we love Him. Most of all, we can celebrate our day of rest on any day we wish, because God's rest is 24/7. Every day is a holiday for God's people.

Thank you, God.