The Importance of Spiritual Rest

In Psalm 23:2, God invites us to rest beside His still waters. A recent experience taught me just how important it is to rest in God and what it means to do so. What started as a sinus infection in the spring of 2015 eventually ended up in my chest. I’d been coughing off and on for months by the time I went to the doctor, and when I finally did, I was diagnosed with bronchitis.

One day while praying, God led me to fast in preparation for an upcoming sermon I was to give at my church’s youth service. God had long been whispering to me the words of Psalm 46:10, and on the first day of the fast, I heard Him say it again. “Be still, and know that I am God.”

“Okay, God,” I responded as I lay on my prayer mat, “I’ll be still and let You be God.”

I went to bed shortly after my prayer, and the next morning upon waking, God whispered to me so clearly these words: “Cease striving and rest in Me.”

I looked up the phrase “cease striving” on the Internet and found that it is another way of saying “be still.” This is what God had been saying to me all along. He then pointed out several areas in my life that I’d been worried about, such as finances, my job, the praise team at church, and our ministry in general. I hadn’t even realized I’d been worrying about these things. They’d become a part of my everyday existence.

After God revealed these things, in the next moment He said, “Now, I want you to give these to me. Cease striving and rest in Me. Herein lies your healing.”

Immediately, I began to cry and release these things to God in prayer, and miraculously in that instant my cough went away! I’d been taking two prescribed medications to no avail, and during this one moment in prayer, this one act of submission to God, I’d received my total and complete healing! I learned that day that there’s a difference between natural sleep and rest in God.

I’d been sleeping physically as much as possible in an attempt to let my body heal, but I hadn’t been resting, or abiding, in trust in God. As saints and people in general, this practice is common. Many of us fail to rest in God. To rest in God means to put our worries in His capable hands and leave them there. Too often the majority of us lack sleep because we’re too preoccupied with worrying to let our eyes rest. God wants the opposite for His beloved children. He wants us to truly rest in Him and be refreshed in His presence!

"Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10 NASB

The above excerpt is from "The Supernatural Power of Seeking God: Losing and Finding Your Life in Christ" Copyright @ 2017 by Kaila Frierson - (Chapter Three "Getting on God’s Kingdom Blessing System")

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