SERVING FROM THAT PLACE OF REST

Sleepless nights are a nightmare! (Unless of course God wakes you up to tell you something!) Was it that quarter pounder I ate an hour before bed? Or just too much scrolling on my phone? Maybe the heatwave outside is making sleeping impossible? Or just a lack of exercise is making me a poor sleeper?

But what if my work responsibilities are keeping me awake in the midnight hour? Could it be that annoying situation is still bugging me? My brain is fixed on a loop and I just can’t find a solution for it? How can I find peace in the busyness of life to impact both my waking and sleeping when the responsibilities I have weigh heavily upon me? I believe that when we live from a place of rest, we get a better understanding of who is actually responsible for those things that we feel we just can’t lay to rest at night.

A false perspective

I’m sure you have heard it said, “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” A great quote, attributed to some great men.  Apparently, Saint Augustine said it, or was it Ignatius? Martin Luther?  Spurgeon?  You’ll find all these men of God have their name next to the quote online. So who am I to say that it’s unbiblical?! It might have been appropriate at the time it was said, but what was said to motivate and bring purpose, now just seems to bring burden and a false perspective.

King Solomon once wrote this, “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain” (Psalm 127:1). Vain is an interesting word. Here it isn’t talking about the “vanity” of Ecclesiastes. He’s not saying it’s all meaningless. No. Building in vain and standing guard in vain say something alarming: that there just isn’t a lot to show for all that effort put in. Your gates could be attacked and your building knocked down; but if it's the Lord’s work, the attacks won’t cause devastation. There is a lasting nature about His building. All of that striving we do to achieve something will only produce human results if God isn’t in it. We’ll get food for our efforts, but little else if we depend upon ourselves to do the Lord’s work.

Let’s put this in the context of serving in a ministry. Reflecting back on my 21 years as a youth pastor, I feel can see more clearly on moments like these. Imagine you are approached by someone with an idea for the ministry you are involved in. They are "good people" and passionate about developing this new ministry (or about you developing this new ministry!). You don't want to say "no." But something inside is just not right. You can't put your finger on it and there is no good reason to refuse, but you feel that God hasn’t got your name on it. Do you "build" where you sense God is not building?

Or imagine someone contacts you on your day off. Something has come up that threatens to pull down things you are in the process of building. How do you respond? Maybe you make a few calls or start texting people, trying to fix the problem to no avail. You're in the middle of some family time, but you feel the pull to deal with it immediately. At night time you can’t sleep. You arrive at church on Sunday, ready with a plan of action to solve the problem. You're distracted and possibly a bit tense. You walk up to the person to deal with the situation and it turns out things aren't as they seem. The threat is not imminent doom and in fact an opportunity has presented itself which looks like the Lord has had a hand in it. Has this ever happened to you?

Working in our sleeping

God is always working. Jesus said in Mark 4:26 “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain…” Do you notice what it says? Whether he sleeps or gets up because of sleepless nights, the outcome is the same. When God is at work we can put our full dependence on Him and not on ourselves. You know what our job is? The seed scatterer. God is responsible for the growth of your ministry. If someone were to congratulate us on a job well done where a load of young people had become Christians in the last 3 months, we most likely say “It’s not me, it’s God.” Yet we’re willing to carry the burden and pressure, as if it is us who is going to make it happen! So which is it?? Do we make it happen or God?

A good thing or a God thing?

What I'm getting at is that there are times when we strive under the impression that it all depends on us. Don't think for a moment that I’m recommending laziness or the relinquishing of responsibility! The pressing reality is that there is so much to do that we cannot waste our time on pursuits or red herrings that are not in partnership with God. Is it simply a good thing? Or is it actually God thing? In our line of work there are plenty of things we can be doing. We need to be working where God is at work, in partnership with Him. He gave us rest to enjoy and be refreshed because He loves us and wants to renew us, so we don't work when the Lord told us to rest. Other people won’t always see or understand this.

Whether we strive hard or let God go for it, God will still work. That building will still be built and that wall will still be protected; stress or no stress, sleep or no sleep. It's worth then stressing less and getting on with some sleep! I'm aware that some of you might be wondering if I'm writing this out of a predestinationist agenda. I'm really not! I don't need to add fuel to that fire! Put simply: when people work where God is working, something happens. He carries the burden of the ministry and He multiplies our efforts. But more than that, He wants us to rely on Him for everything! Especially for the things that we can't do, and especially in the things that the enemy throws our way to wear us out and to stress us out.

Heavenly investments

Our work is in living assets. It isn’t for monetary wealth, but rather investment in the next generation; raising up leaders and strong disciples. Like arrows in a quiver. Invest where God is working, where He is using you and depend on Him for those things that you cannot do. Unless we work from that place of rest in God, a dependence that trusts it is His work which He will take care of, we'll think it all depends on us. We'll lack lasting impact because our focus is on us getting it right and then miss what God is doing. Yet He says “Be still and know that I am God. I will be glorified among the nations” (Psalm 46:10). A child-like trust comes out of the place of His presence where we discover more of Him and stop trying to work it all out. Believe Him when he says He will be glorified. His purposes will come to pass!

Have you noticed that children have a different mind-set to us? Like Gru’s Minions, they are looking for opportunities to play all the time! They aren’t bogged down with the burdens of the day. Someone else is responsible for sorting all that out! (Our heavenly Father!) Take on this child-like faith and see that God is responsible for those things that we cannot do.

If you were inspired by this blog, Paul has written some devotional books and resources for young people. They are available to purchase on Amazon. Paul studied at Moorlands College for his BA in Applied Theology, and more recently has earned an MA in The Bible and Ministry in the Contemporary world at Belfast Bible College. Paul has served as a Youth Pastor for over 20 years.

Photo of wooden bench by Aaron Burden on Unsplash