November 26, 2014

The below was written by Mandy to the worship team in an email. She graciously allowed us to post it on the blog as an encouragement for everyone.

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Hey everyone! Hope your week is coming along awesome! :) I have the whole week off from work, so I am enjoying some wonderful rest :)

Here comes that busy time of year... Thanksgiving is only a couple days away and Christmas is only 4 weeks away (yikes!). My thoughts this morning in bed, as I was just lounging around (I'm really not trying to make you annoyed! ;)) were about just that... Rest. I thanked God, out loud, for this blessing of being able to take the week off and sleep in, stay up late reading or watching a movie, etc. And then the spirit put it on my heart... What does it mean to really rest, and what kind of rest does He give me? He definitely wants us to physically rest when we need it. He knows we have hectic, busy lives. He tells us to rest physically. In Exodus, he said "Six days you will work, but on the seventh day, you will rest...". And there are times in the Bible where it tells us about Jesus resting or his disciples resting. In the next 4 or so weeks it's gonna get really hard to physically rest! But God knows the importance of it... our bodies
physically need it. So even if it's for a few minutes here and there, take some time to rest. Our bodies need it, but our minds and hearts do too. I think sometimes it's hard to focus, or even hear the spirit talking to us when we're on the go, go, go!

Then there's the other kind of rest... Resting in Him. Rest for our souls. It's a crazy world. So much distraction and busyness and crappy things going on here. But our Father says "Come to me all who are weary and burdened. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me. I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy and my burden is light". Right there, He tells us that He knows we may become weary and burdened at times. And He says to come to Him... give it to Him... lay it at His feet. I love how He says He's gentle. I imagine me going to Him weary, and Him with His arms open, gently waving me over to come sit in His lap. And in that moment, what rest my soul would have, knowing that He is the one to take my heavy load. He takes it off of me... and then He gives me His yoke. And I can put that easy, light yoke on my back and rest. When we do that, we no longer have to carry our burdens... we can lay
them at His feet and put a new, easy and light yoke on and rest. We can breathe easy and have peace and rest of mind. And then we have this: Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus". LOVE this! We no longer have to be anxious or heavy with unrest. We can take on His yoke and then freely pray and ask for whatever we need and He will give us rest and peace that the world can't even understand. Isn't that awesome? :) So during this crazy and busy time of year, I'm gonna remember that when/if I get weary, I'm gonna go sit in my Daddy's lap and let him take that load off my back, and then take his light yoke and put it on. And then ask Him for whatever I need (peace of mind, comfort, rest, just to be held, etc.) knowing that because
I've asked and made my requests known to Him, He delights in giving them to me. :) Wow. One more thing... God gives us each other, as Christ's body, to be there for one another. To come alongside one another. Please know, that you are not alone! Not only did He promise us His rest and peace and His yoke, He gave us one another right here and now to lift one another up and walk alongside each other. We were created to need each other and are a family. So I just want to encourage you all to reach out to me or anyone on our team when you're in need. But also be there to reach out when you see one of us needs it. :)