James Duff May 18th 2014 - Resting can be difficult

How are you? I have been guilty many times of answering the question of how I am with: “I’m well but tired.”Reading the following quote has challenged me about the priorities in our lives:“What is the biggest obstacle facing the family right now? It is over-commitment, time pressure. There is nothing that will destroy family life more insidiously than hectic schedules and busy lives, where spouses are too exhausted to communicate, too worn out to make love, too fatigued to talk to the kids. That frantic lifestyle is just as destructive as one involving unbroken sin. If Satan can't make you sin, he'll make you busy, and that's just about the same thing.” ~ James DobsonAre you just making it to Sunday by falling into a coma that you can only be awoken from by consuming large quantities of ‘TopDup’ coffee? At times it seems nearly impossible to keep it all going: kids to feed, clothes to clean, bills to pay and conversations with a boss who makes James Packer and David Gyngell’s way of dealing with conflict look angelic.Are you falling exhausted into your days off and feeling like you waste them due to weariness? Is your life so hectic that your relationship with God seems distant? In all of the busyness of life it can become easy to forget to ask God what he is saying to you and what you should do about it. Personally, I find I have a life that is so jam-packed that, if I don’t make it a priority to ask God those questions, I just jump from one good idea and commitment to the next and seem to lose focus on what is important in my life. It is pretty basic but fundamentally important if we want to grow as disciples of Jesus to have developed a spiritual discipline that sees us in regular communication with God and then resting.Pray and rest - we all need to. Buddy up with a mature Christian and chat about how you could build less into your busy schedules. Start with culling some type of activity that you are involved with that is not essential for you. Don’t wait until after the usual morning battle of getting to church next Sunday to think about it. At the risk of sounding legalistic, stop doing stuff and rest. The time is now!God loves you, and loves spending time with you.James Duff