When You Don’t Have Time to Stop

There’s a trap I tend to fall into… my guess is you might too… It is the trap that says: I can’t stop…  I’m too busy… It’s too important… There’s no one else to take care of this…

What a dangerous place to be!  When you think you don’t have time to stop, it is more critical then ever that you find some time to rest.  In fact, there’s a good chance you are headed straight for bitterness, burnout, sickness, or depression.

When I find myself in this unhealthy place, I have to remind myself of the truth.  In the book of Hebrews, God challenges us to listen to His voice and enter into His rest.  For some of us rest is nothing more then a lovely concept that we will get to in the future.  But listen closely to what God says in Hebrews 4:10-11, “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following that same example of disobedience (NASB).”

Did you catch that?  God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the One who holds the universe together, rested.  When I think I am too busy to rest, in reality I am saying I am more important than God.   When I decide not to stop, I am telling God He doesn’t understand my situation. But God is clear, a failure to rest is considered disobedience.

Rest is a choice.  A choice that says, I believe God is in control.  That I know God can do more in a moment than I can do in a week.  That I choose to worship God instead of depending on my own capabilities.

The trap of self-sufficiency is alive and well in so many of us. We have to be on guard.  It is easy for busyness to creep in and take over before we even realize it. Here some signals that let me know I need to make rest a priority:

• I feel like I am holding everything together and if I stop to catch my breath everything will crumble
• I am irritable and reacting uncharacteristically negative to people and situations
• When someone offers a suggestion or advice I quickly launch into a defense of myself
• My time with God is short, strained, or inconsistent
• I am not sleeping well and feel constantly tired
• My brain is working slow and I have a hard time remembering things

Next time you find yourself “too busy” instead of plowing through, use that as a trigger to point you to God.  It is through His rest that we find strength for life’s journey. What a great exchange!  We can take our chaos and find His joy and peace!

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For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works,” and again in this passage, “they shall not enter my rest.” Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience. He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following that same example of disobedience.
Hebrews 4:4-11 NASB