Forced Rest

I woke up at 2am this morning with fever, chills, bone aches, the works. You know it is a rare thing for a mother to admit that she is sick, but I am sick. Sometimes I laugh when others tell me how busy they are. I know not the best habit in the world, but I am a work in progress.

People are way too busy this day, me included. Among my kids being involved in so many things, things that have us away from home four nights a week, and then we are Jesus are freaks, so Wednesday and Sunday we are at church, doing our part to glorify our Father in Heaven and bring children to Christ. My kids are a very active part in that work. God blessed me with the best, but it is because I put the work in. I follow God's example laid out for me in the Bible and do my best.

This morning I found myself in tears as I typed that I needed to cancel youth tonight. If you know me, I am tough ole' gal. I do not generally cry unless we are watching God work and bring people to His flock. When someone accepts Christ, my feelings fall from my eyes. You see, I'm so engrossed in my work for God that it literally breaks my heart to miss just one day. When God puts a work on your heart, wild horses cannot hold you back, but a fever can.

I always seek counsel from Ms. Carol and if you follow KCC, you know I consider her my spiritual mentor in all things. She walks so closely with God and in a time in her life that seems so impossible, but there God is with her walking her through. As a good, grandmother figure does, yes, she is my grandmother in Christ, she always tells me to slow down and rest. And...I do not.

Ira Antoine spoke at conference I was at and he was speaking on rest. He has more than once told me I need a break too, but I do not break. Yesterday, my health forced me to rest, forced me to take a break. While my heart is in the right place, working for God, being on fire, and pushing forward, I put myself on the back burner. It goes back to the airplane and the gas mask example. I cannot save my children if I do not have oxygen reaching my brain.

From Genesis we see this theme of rest that is important as God rested on the seventh day and then He took it a step further with the ten commandments and made it a holy day of rest. For someone in ministry, Sunday is an amazing day to work for the Lord, and I forget to rest. Then Monday rolls around and I am back in the grind of being a mother, going to school myself, writing lessons for KCC and youth, planning training events, writing books, and the list goes on and I DO NOT REST.

God takes rest seriously. It is how we restore ourselves in oneness with God. It is how we keep on task in in our Spiritual Walk. Even though I feel justified in my not resting, because I feel like I am doing the Lord's work, I am still being disobedient and that's a tough pill to swallow. I get self-centered and tell God, but I'm doing what you told me to. How do you expect me to get it all done if I don't keep working?

But yall I am so wrong. God will get all the things done He wants through me and my obedience. He doesn't want me worn down to where I cannot function. He wants me firing on all cylinders that I may make a true kingdom difference with Him.

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Hebrews 4:9-11