Take time to rest and relax - All The Word for Today Daily Devotionals for 2024

‘He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.’ Psalm 23:2 ESV

When you find yourself saying, ‘I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up,’ you may need to change some of your priorities and adjust your lifestyle. The psalmist said, ‘I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. …’ (Psalm 139:14 ESV). God designed your body to give you warnings when you’re pushing too hard, like an ache here or a pain there. But we ignore these warnings until we become too sick to ignore them any longer. And because we live in the most medicated generation in history, we take prescriptions, pills, and potions hoping that’s the answer. But it’s a short-term cure. We can’t ignore God’s direction to take time to rest and not pay a price for it.

Nobody had a greater purpose or a more important mission than Jesus and His disciples. Yet He instructed them to take time out for rest and relaxation (see Mark 6:31). Pastors, is this an area of discipleship you need to practise and teach your people? The church should not keep people so busy that it negatively affects their health and hurts their family relationships. If you are living an unsustainable life today, stop putting off making the changes you need to make. Don’t wait until something happens, like a health problem or a family problem. Make changes now to live the kind of life God wants you to live. When you live God’s way, you will discover a new level of peace in your life. ‘He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.’ (Psalm 23:2 ESV)

SoulFood: 1 Cor 4-6 Luke 23:44-56 Ps 13 Pro 25:4-8