Complete
the REST of the week #63
What would you like to rest from this rest of the week?
Do you ever feel like people are picking on you?
Do you ever encounter well meaning people so burdened by their own need for perfection that they seek respite by turning their attention on you—showering you with well-meaning (or not) critical observations and suggestions on how you could do (and be) better?
And, if you’ve been prone to picking on yourself from time to time, you may start agreeing and apologizing and getting sucked into a whirling vortex of emotions—maybe discouragement, defeat, or just plain fatigue.
Or, maybe you just shift into angry and defensive mode.
How do we sit down and begin in our own souls? How do we rest comfortably in our own skin?
If you’re feeling picked on (or maybe tempted to avoid your own discomfort by picking on someone else), perhaps it will help to remember that God isn’t into picking on anyone.
God’s voice is not only absent in the cacophony of accusations, he makes a way for us out of condemnation, defending us against the voice of the Accuser (translation of the word Satan).
Consider the verse that follows the well known John 3:16 (“For God so love the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life"):
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17 ESV).
God is for us, meeting us just as we are, rebirthing us through his Spirit and guiding us through growing up all over again—never rushed, ever patient, able to contain all our doubts and fears, foibles and relapses.
I sense a security that compels me to resist the vortex—my own or someone else’s—and I open my heart to believe more.
May your rest be sweet,
Alicia