Be Still & Know That I am God: a word by Jessica O.

One of my favorite verses is Psalms 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.” The subject of rest has been a fascinating and rewarding journey, but it has caused me to examine deep motives and contradictions within myself. I once heard a friend say that the Lord told her, “I can work through many, but I can rest in few.” That really resonates within me because I want to give Him a place to rest. I was reminded of the story of Mary and Martha. It is much less about what we do, but more about who we are in Him. He is touched by when we do things for Him, but He desires even more for us to stop and take time to just be with Him and enjoy His presence. He has called us to be sons, but we often only see ourselves in the role of servants. 

During a recent conversation with a friend, I was hit with a revelation from something she said. Striving and sacrifice look similar on the outside. I suddenly realized they were two sides of the same coin. Striving is from the tree of good and evil. It is the counterfeit. At first, it seems like a good thing as we push to pray more, read the bible more, pour more time into seeking after righteousness, all to gain favor from the Lord. The problem is it stems from what we do to earn the desired result from the Lord. The fruit of this is anxiety and pressure to be enough and fear we will miss the mark. It is rooted in the law and our own efforts to fulfill our end. 

Sacrifice, on the other hand, is from the tree of life. It often does not feel particularly good at first, because it triggers fear as we wrestle with letting go of control. But, when we come through the other end of the struggle with our flesh, we enter a place of complete rest. We can only come to a place of total sacrifice if we can fully trust and believe that the Lord has it all in His hands, and He is good. Then, we can lay it all down, just breathe, and realize the burden really is light. We enter His rest. The Kingdom of God operates from a place of rest.