Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Confidence”
Our Bible verse for today: “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” Mark 6:31 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “We have to have the confidence to just stop and rest.”
Henri Nouwen was a Catholic priest whose work and ministry I have always admired. Henri was not your typical Catholic priest. He was a missionary priest who spent many years working in remote locations of Latin America. He was also a brilliant intellectual who taught philosophy and theology at Harvard. And he was an author of many best-selling books about living the deeper Christian life.
By his own admission Henri was a high-octane over-achiever who spent much of his life constantly on the go. However, he also admitted that all his life there were two competing voices inside his head. One urged him to succeed and achieve, but the other called him to simply rest in the presence of God. Henri said that it wasn’t until the later years of his life when he finally learned to pay more attention to the second voice rather than the first. And when he did, he discovered that resting in the Lord was a lot more fulfilling than constantly striving for achievement.
In Mark chapter six Jesus and his closest disciples were in the middle of an intense period of ministry activities. People were pressing in all around them presenting their needs, looking for help, and keeping them all very busy. In the middle of all that, Jesus suddenly calls a halt to it all, gathers his disciples around him, and takes them away from the crowds and activities to a remote and quiet place so they could simply rest. I’m sure some of the disciples looked at all the pressing ministry needs and felt as if they simply could not in good conscience walk away from it. But Jesus knew that what they needed was rest, and so that is what He called them to.
Many of us don’t have the confidence to simply call a halt to the all the activity and go off for a good rest. We convince ourselves that it’s just not practical, just not doable. There are too many pressing concerns, too many people depending on us. Well, the good news is that the world isn’t really going to end just because you or I check-out for a short time. God is God, and I am not. He can manage things just fine without my constant involvement, and that goes for you too.
No matter how many people might be depending on you, and no matter how many responsibilities you think you have, the truth is that if you don’t take care of yourself you won’t be of much good to anyone else anyway. Sometimes the most effective thing we can do is to simply go get some rest.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 