Obedience that leads to Rest
by Louise Stahnke

August 5, 2007

Early this summer, I read about the spiritual discipline of rest. And since I was at the beginning of a long summer of baking, it seemed a good thing to focus on. Rest as a spiritual discipline is not just taking an afternoon nap, or ignoring my weedy garden, though I have done both.

I didn’t learn to rest very well growing up. There was way too much tension and fear of being hurt as a child. I was not a child who could climb into my parents’ arms and feel safe. But you don’t have to grow up fearful of being hurt to not learn to rest..

When we believe we constantly or even regularly need to earn our worth, we don’t rest well.
When we are focused on seeking the approval of others, we don’t rest well.
When we are afraid that something or someone we value will be taken from us, we don’t rest well.
When we are afraid our needs won’t be met, we don’t rest well.
When we believe we are the one to come up with the solution to difficult situations, we don’t rest well.
We have to grow in trust before rest comes. And I’ve been learning that the old song “Trust and Obey” is right. In order to be able to truly trust this loving Father of ours to meet our needs, we need to obey Him.

We like to think about trusting Him, and that is right and good. We may still be immature in the way we think about obedience. Obedience sounds like a drag. Obedience sounds like I’m going to have to do something I really don’t want to do and it won’t be fun or good at all.

In my journey in this discipline of learning to rest, I’ve found myself needing to truly embrace being obedient to do what the Lord asks me to do, in lots of little areas of my life or relationships. And I’m learning.

I’m learning that doing what He asks me to do isn’t such a hard thing most of the time. I’m learning that things turn out better than I might have expected.  I’m learning that He’s got pretty good ideas. I’m also learning that He doesn’t ask huge, impossible tasks of me.  And I’m learning that He is faithful to give me all that I need so that I can obey Him.

I’m concluding this is a pretty good deal. I pay attention to what He wants me to do or say. I obey Him in that. And He helps it all turn out right. Much of my work has to do with people and relationships. Did you ever notice how complicated people are? Even yourself? If I believe I need to be the one to sort out all those complications, I’m in trouble. I’ll think I’ve got something or someone all figured out, and of course, I don’t.

The neat thing about being obedient to the Lord and doing or saying what He directs me to, is that He is the one responsible for the outcome. And He is the only one who is truly able to understand the relationships and problems we have as people. So, of course, doing it His way works best, way better than my own way.
To know that my role is to obey Him is very freeing. It leaves Him to deal with the outcome in all the ways that He knows best.
Jesus also clearly teaches that when we don’t obey him, we are in danger of having our life fall down around us, as a house built on sand.
Making a habit, or at least a growing habit, of obeying Him, is bringing me into a deeper level of trust with Him.
It is in that trust, that I am learning to truly rest.
To not worry if I’ll have enough bakery help.
To not worry what someone else may be thinking about me.
To not worry about the future, whatever it holds.
To simply know that I am deeply loved.
It makes sense that it is a simple functional approach. I do my part with the Lord and He does His. It’s a good way to learn to truly rest.

Now, an obvious question might be, “how do we know in lots of small details of life what the Lord wants us to do or say?”

Knowing Scripture is definitely basic. Knowing the voice of the Holy Spirit is also basic.
I don’t know any short cut to learning to hear Him well.
It takes time, intentional time, in prayer, in listening, in reading Scripture.
It takes getting past the wounds in our lives that tell us that we aren’t important to our Lord.
It takes being truly willing to do whatever He does ask of us. What parent would give a child instructions if he or she knows the child isn’t even listening or has no intention of doing what the parent wants?
Is it worth all that effort? Maybe even pain?
Yes, it is very worth it. I continue to grow into the Joy the Lord gives.
After all, when we feel rested, it is not so hard to feel Joy.