Wrestling to Rest

Wrestling mind

Wrestling to find the time

Wrestling through the strife

Wrestling to resist the rush

Wrestling to overcome the overwhelming

Wrestling to release

Wrestling to receive the gift

Wrestling to return

Wrestling to rely

Wrestling to remain

Wrestling to remember promises given

Wrestling to relinquish the wrestle of restlessness

Wrestling the rampant disorder of running on empty

Wrestling, weakening hope

Worn, weary, wallowing through waves of wreckage

Wailing for relief

For rest made reality

Returning to awareness

Returning to presence

Returning to stillness

Releasing, resisting, remaining

Receiving, restoring, resting

Rest revived in the wrestle.

Rest. A crucial craving our souls desperately long for and need amidst a culture of rush and strife. We are often told that we need to posses more material items, have more experiences, gain more followers, learn more, produce more, become more, and to do it all in the quickest, most efficient way. More and rush, the greatest hindrances to the receiving and activation of rest. 

Has rest ever felt more like a wrestle than a peaceful refreshing of your soul? Being consumed by thoughts and caught up in distractions create a contended grappling with the reality of the overwhelming culture of “more” and “strife” that has been concocted among us. This culture wrestles to destroy and defeat our peace, leaving us restless and anxious. 

Rest can be uncomfortable because it seems like a foreign concept in our day and age. It often requires becoming still and placing yourself in a space with no distractions which can be a huge challenge.

Wrestling is a counter action to rest, but what if wrestling is a prerequisite to receiving and entering into a posture and practice of rest? We often don’t desire to engage the wrestle, but instead let the wrestle pin us down with worries, fears, and doubts that lies have sustained in our being. Rest is an untangling by the unwavering peace of God. Rest isn’t always peaceful at first. It often begins with a wrestle through the undoing of lies and distractions. The only way for this undoing to take place is by returning to and engaging with the person of Jesus and the presence of God, the only One who can fill you with truth and give you rest. It begins with an awareness of His presence that ultimately beckons an action to “come”, “be”, and enter into His rest. 

Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 

and I will give you rest.”

The giving is preceded by the coming. If you never come to the giver and sustainer of rest, you will never receive it or dwell in it. Rest is reliant on the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Rest is brought forth through the hope that Jesus secured through His death and resurrection. What you have put your hope in is often the source from which you receive rest and the foundation from which you are able to enter into rest.

Rest is received in the awareness of God’s presence and it is activated in the abiding of the finished work of Jesus. When you do come and receive rest it moves you deeper into the heart of God where you discover true rest because you have found the One who created it and sustains it. 

Verse 29 goes on to say, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, 

for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

God’s heart is “gentle” and “humble”. We often find rest when we yield to the gentle touch of our loving Father and surrender to His process of being humbled. Through this process we become aware of our physical and mental limitations that lead us to the realization of our need for rest and ultimately grace. Grace is the bridge over the gap of restlessness into the ease and lightness of God’s rest. (Matthew 11:30) Grace makes the giving and receiving of rest possible. God’s grace compels Him to be the gift-giver and the gift-sustainer. 

Another prerequisite to receiving the gift of rest is the action of releasing. Have you ever tried to receive a gift while your hands were full? You don’t magically grow another hand to hold it, you have to set the things in your hands down first in order to create an opportunity and space to receive the gift that is being extended. 

The burdens and struggles that need to be laid down vary between each person. It is a matter of each individual heart when aligned with the heart of God. When your heart is laid bare before the Lord, who is at the core? You or God? Determining who holds ownership of your heart can reveal and give clarity to the areas of your life where you are most restless. Rest is about letting God recalibrate your heartbeat to His.

Psalm 139: 23 states,”Search me, God, and know my heart;

Test me and know my anxious thoughts.”

Asking God to “search” and “test” you is a difficult request to make because we are often afraid of what may be revealed. Anxiety lingers in a heart that is not consistently laid open before the Lord and surrendered to His rightful reign. Anxiety builds a wall around your heart and keeps God’s peace, found in His rest, from permeating through.

The word “rest” contains the prefix “re” which is used in meaning “again” or “again and again”. It is also used in meaning “back” or “backward” to indicate withdrawal or backward motion. Other definitive words include “regenerate”, “refurbish”, “retype”, “retrace”, and “revert”. 

Rest is a constant returning to the presence of God to receive the gift “again and again”.

Rest is reawakening intimacy with God by withdrawing with Him into His sweet embrace.

Rest is meant to refresh and restore, to refill and refuel.

To regenerate life and energy.

To refurbish the decaying heart.

To retype the story.

To retrace the faithfulness of God.

And to revert to the goodness of God. 

Rest is a remolding and mending of your mind to believe that what Jesus did on the cross was, is, and will forever be enough. 

Rest is remaining in the rhythms of God’s timing. 

Rest is remembering the promises of God.

Rest is a repositioning of your soul towards the promises of God.

Rest is a promise we get to enter into now.

Rest is a re-steadying of your soul in the steady love and character of God. 

“Now we who have believed enter that rest…

let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest…”

Hebrews 4: 3 & 11

How is God calling you to rest deeper in Him in this season or your life?

Is there a specific circumstance, relationship, or thought that you need to release control to God and rest in His ability to work it out for your good and His glory?

Don’t fight the wrestle.

 Welcome it. 

Embrace it. 

Let God meet you in it. 

Determine to use the struggle as a means to re-surrender, 

re-trust, and remain confident in who God is.

Slow down, breathe, and receive the rest He’s always extending to you.

Rest deep in Him. 

Wrestle: “to combat an opposing tendency or force; to engage in deep thought, consideration, or debate; to engage in or as if in a violent or determined struggle; to move, maneuver, or force with difficulty” (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

REST: “freedom from activity or labor; a state of motionless or inactivity; peace of mind or spirit; something used for support; a rhythmic silence in music; to be free from anxiety or disturbance; to remain confident: trust; to be based or founded; to cause to be firmly fixed” (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

Suggested song to soak in: “Lean Back” by Capital City Music

Suggested further study: Hebrews 4