Chosen Grace

Hey friends! We’ve officially entered the month of July! Yay for us! Enjoy this blog post!

The other I was with my family. We had all went to my grandparents home just to chat and my grandfather ended up turning to the Olympics track and field trials.

Suddenly, all the chatter in the room stopped as we looked at the contenders for the race. They were all women and while they certainly were beautiful, I was in awe of their muscles.

“Man, I miss running.” I said to myself. You see, as I mentioned in the post Obeying When It Doesn’t Make Sense, I had injured my lower abdomen one day at the gym. This resulted in me not running for a period of time. And while I did start back running and going to the gym, there had been more than one occasion when I would go too hard – resulting in me having to start my healing journey over.

So, when I saw those strong track and field ladies running, I grew sad. I felt bad that I wasn’t being as active as I used to be and I got frustrated with myself, feeling like I was not doing enough.

As the days passed, the Lord began to speak to me using this Scripture below:

“ As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,  but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.””

– Luke 10:38-42, NIV

I had always been familiar with the passage above, but the Lord began to hilight some very interesting things about rest to me.

In the Scripture, Mary was seemingly doing absolutely nothing. She literally sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to Him talk. Completely opposite of her was her sister Martha. She was busy serving, moving…doing absolutely everything.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am naturally like Martha. Many times on Chosen Grace, I’ve admitted to being a ‘Type A’ person. I love doing, moving, and serving just like Martha.

Yet, as I grow closer and closer to Christ He has slowly been transforming me from a ‘Type A’ person to someone who desires rest.

Like the example I gave above with my ab injury, I had been so used to ‘doing’ that I completely neglected that rest in itself is beneficial.

This idea is hard to remember when we are constantly bombarded with messages that say otherwise. Our society is as fast paced as ever and it seems as if everyone is “hustling” or “getting to the bag”. Resting in the world’s eyes seems down right bananas!

But I have learned that this is not the way of Christ.

In Christ, true rest looks like what Mary was doing: sitting at the Lord’s feet and dwelling with him.

To add more emphasis on this idea of rest, let’s look at a verse from one of my favorite Psalms below:

“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”

– Psalm 91:1, NIV

You see, I’ve come to know Psalm 91 as a protection psalm. It speaks of the one who trusts in God being protected by Him. But this person can only do that once they dwell with God. Once they rest at God’s feet.

And while this may seem easy, I know first hand that it’s not. Many of you reading this have pressures of everyday life eating away at you. For me it was the rush to get back to the gym and work out.

But for you it could be the pressures of meeting a certain deadline at work; the pressure to graduate on time; or simply the anxiousness that comes with striving to be the best at everything.

Whatever it is, I challenge you to surrender yourself- body, mind, and soul– to God. Dwell with Him and He will give you peace that surpasses all understanding (Isaiah 26:3). More than that, God will meet you where you are and began to grow and transform you.

But He can only do that if you cease striving and choose to rest with Him.

As I close out this blog post, I encourage you to let go of those self produced or society produced pressures and rest in a Godly way. I’ve adopted this attitude and it’s blessed me tremendously! I haven’t gone back to the gym yet or gotten back into running. But- by choosing to rest – I know that this will produce good fruit in the long run. And when God does release me to work out again – it’ll be amazing!

Let us strive to have the heart and attitude of Mary- that when it seems like we’re doing nothing we are in fact doing everything.

Rest is productive, my friends. Remember that today.

With a new love for rest,

Malaysia 🙂