​When I was a toddler, my mother taught me a little bedtime prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take. I'm still not sure what it was about the thought of dying in the middle of the night that was supposed to prepare me for sleep. 

Mom would then "soothe" me by singing a lullaby about a baby in a cradle wedged in a tree that came crashing down when the wind caused the load-bearing limb to break. As a child I thought that surely, if I was going to die in my sleep that would be how.

And parents wonder why we're in therapy.

Our bodies, minds, even our souls crave times of peaceful rest. For our own health and well-being--not to mention the well-being of those around us--we need regular periods of calm and quiet. Not just at night as we sleep, but throughout our week.
 
For many in today's hectic culture, rest and relaxation are foreign concepts. We may want to make self-care a top priority, but caring for our bodies, de-cluttering our minds, and quieting our souls are often the first things scratched from our "To Do" lists when we get too busy.

Someone once said, “If the devil can’t make you bad he’ll make you busy.” Truth is, Satan can use our schedules as much as our sins to keep us from the kind of life our Creator longs for us to have.
  
Jesus once said, The thief comes to steal and destroy; I have come that (you) may have life, and have it to the full (Jn. 10:10, NIV).
 
The “full” life Jesus desires for us is a life characterized by deep and abiding peace. Peace that comes from accepting that God is control and we are not. Peace that results from knowing that we are loved by Him not for what we do, but for who we are. Peace that is only found in spending regular time in His presence.  
 
A rubber band that is continually stretched to its limits will lose its elasticity. In time, it will develop hairline cracks and will eventually snap. So it is with our bodies, minds, and souls. For us to function at our optimum level and truly experience life to the full we must allow ourselves to rest, to regularly return to a natural, relaxed state.

In the book of Matthew Jesus offers us this invitation: Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matt. 11:28-29, NLT).

Make that appointment. Write it at the top of your “To Do” list. Take the time to get away alone with Jesus. Find rest for your body, mind, and soul. And begin to experience life God wants for you--life to the full.  

(Excerpt from When Father is a Bad Word)

Sadly, for many of us life is all about doing. We plot, we plan, we rush from one meeting or activity to the next as we try to cram as many things into each day as possible before falling into bed at night totally exhausted.

Christians are certainly not exempt from this way of life. We just add spiritual activity to our To Do Lists:

• going to church
• serving on church committees
• praying
• reading our Bible
• doing our daily devotions
• helping the needy.

But even spiritual activity can hinder us in our relationship with our Creator. We can become so busy doing things for God that we never actually spend time with God.
 
Imagine being so consumed with doing things for our spouse—cleaning the house, preparing their meals, washing their car, buying them gifts—that we didn't have time to actually be with them. I think you’d agree that’s not a way to build a marriage. Yet for many of us that is precisely what our “relationship” with God looks like.

The Devil deceives us into thinking that our good, Christ-like activity brings us closer to God. Pastor and author John Ortberg once said, “If the Devil can’t make you bad he’ll make you busy.”   

Our Heavenly Father has a different strategy to help us draw closer to Him. He simply says, Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10, NIV). Not get busy. But be still. Stop what you’re doing. Put away the To Do List. Silence your electronic devices. Dispose of all distractions. Just. Be. Still.

I remember being in a church leadership meeting where the pastor had just come back from a spiritual retreat in which he had a sweet time of practicing the presence of God. Still glowing from the experience he asked the leaders, “When was the last time you got alone with God where you weren’t reading the Bible or even praying, but were just spending time with the Heavenly Father?”

The sound of crickets suggested that there wasn’t a first time they had done that. It’s not that they weren’t good people. They were dedicated to God. They were hard workers in the church. But while they were active in doing things for God they were alarmingly passive in terms simply being with God.   

Many people today are frightened by stillness. One reason is we have grown accustomed to being in busy, noisy environments. We are bombarded daily by words and noises from our ipads and ipods, our blue tooths and blue rays, our PCs and MP-3s. Sometimes we even hear sounds emanating from real people. When we have become comfortable surrounding ourselves with constant noise the sound of silence can be scary.

Some of us are so task-oriented that we feel guilty just being still. We see idleness as a waste of valuable time. We tell ourselves we must stay busy; we’ve got to be productive.
 
But here’s the stark reality: When we equate stillness with laziness and wear busyness like a badge of honor we miss out on the rest for our souls that is necessary for our relationship with God to grow deeper.
​
Our Heavenly Father longs for us to simply spend time with Him; to bask in His presence; to glory in His embrace; to wallow in His grace. To simply allow Him to love us for who we are—His beloved children.

So if you truly want to grow closer to Him, at the top of your To Do List write the words TIME ALONE WITH GOD. Find a place to meet with Him. Permit Him to lead you beside still waters so you can find rest for your soul.

When I was a toddler, my mother taught me a little bedtime prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take. I'm still not sure what it was about the thought of dying in the middle of the night that was supposed to make me want to go to sleep. 

I remember that Mom would then "soothe" me by singing a lullaby about a baby in a cradle wedged in a tree that came crashing down when the wind caused the load-bearing limb to break. Surely, if I was going to die in my sleep that would be how.

And parents wonder why we're in therapy.

Our bodies, minds, even our souls crave times of tranquility. For our own health and well-being--not to mention the well-being of those around us--we need regular periods of calm and quiet. But, for many in today's culture, rest and relaxation are foreign concepts. Times of caring for our bodies, de-cluttering our minds, and quieting our souls are often the first things scratched from our "To Do" lists when we get too busy.

We happen to have a Heavenly Father who wants nothing but the best for His kids. That's why it grieves Him when He sees us weighing ourselves down with unmet needs, unreasonable expectations, and unresolved issues. His desire is that we soar like eagles. But we are often so weighed down by the pressures, fears, and worries of this world that we can't get off the ground.

So our Heavenly Father comes alongside us. He offers to carry our burden for us. His invitation is given in the book of Matthew: "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light" (Matt. 11:28, NLT).

When we are worn out from the despair of trying to be all things to all people, God says, come to me. When we are overwhelmed with doubts that we could ever be "successful," God says, come to me. When we are burdened with discouragement from seeking approval from others who will never give it, God says, come to me.

But there's more. When we come to our Heavenly Father through His Son, He invites us then to take from Him. Take my yoke upon you.

A yoke is a carved, wooden beam that connects oxen together to pull a heavy load or cart. Yokes make it possible for oxen to handle a burden they could never carry on their own. Yokes allow animals to share their strength so they can work beyond their capacity.

When we take Jesus’s yoke upon us, we are, in essence, taking on His power. The result is synergistic. By joining with Him, we operate beyond our capacity. He keeps pulling along with us until we get the job done. When we take His yoke on us and follow His lead, we find rest from our burdens.

Being yoked with Jesus also assures us that not only won’t He leave our side, He can’t leave our side! By definition, once we take on His yoke, He takes on ours.

Once we come to Him and take from Him, God, as explained in this text from Matthew, then makes us this offer: let me teach you. Our Heavenly Father wants us to enter into a relationship with Him so that we can see and experience for ourselves the serenity and peace that only He can give.

Nowhere in the Bible does our Heavenly Father say, come to me and I will take your problems away. Despite what many “health and wealth” preachers are promising, God never vows to give His children a problem-free life. His guarantee is quite the opposite. Jesus said, "Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows." That’s our promise. You won’t see Grandma cross-stitching that verse to hang on the living room wall. But there was more to Jesus's statement. There is a second part to this text, an addendum that provides a divine disclaimer, a comforting conclusion: "But take heart, because I have overcome the world" (John 16:33, NLT).

No matter what trials or sorrows we face on this earth, God’s kids can take heart. We are yoked to One so powerful that He rose victorious over sin and death and hell. Surely He can handle any problems we may face.  

When we find ourselves unable to sleep at night we would be wise to follow our Heavenly Father's advice. Come to Him. Take His yoke. Learn from Him. In His arms we will find rest for our souls.