Jesus Never Said… “You Have to Earn Your Rest”

Hey friend, it's Laura. Welcome to a new season of the Girl Talk podcast. After this conversation, I'll be back for the Girl Talk group chat. So stick around for that. This is the Girl Talk podcast. Things Jesus never said. Hello there, you're listening to the Girl Talk podcast. My name is Carol. I'm Kelly. I'm Trisha. We're so glad you've joined us today. We're going to be talking about something Jesus never said. And this one's a little bit practical here. Jesus never said you need to earn rest. You need to earn rest. Why can't we rest? And what do we need to do to allow ourselves to rest? Why do you think? Let's start with why do you think we can't rest? What else do we have to do lists that never end? And they constantly seem to just have new things. And somebody will need something from you. And then all of a sudden you're to do list, get some more things on it. And then you never actually got the things that you had to get done, done, and then they just move to tomorrow's list tomorrow's list. And then somebody needs a meeting with you, whether for whatever reason. And then all of a sudden you're not doing things that you needed to get done because you're sitting in a meeting. And then you actually got more things to do. That seems awfully persistent. I mean, I need some rest. Yes. Yes. So that's my story. I'm not the rest of you guys, but for sure, the never ending to do list, the responsibilities, the things that are put on us, the things we put on ourselves, but I'll add something else. Even when the to-do list is put aside, my mind won't let me rest because I'm constantly thinking. Even if I don't have to do something, I can't rest because my mind is just going and going and going. Often the inner critic or you need to do this, you need to do that. So not just the to-do list, but the mind as well. Are you solving the world's problems? Why you're over there in your head? Oh, no. I'm not doing anything productive. I think I think I'm hamster real. It's more like that. The issues that you're just mulling over, are they personal issues? Are they? Yes, mostly. No, no, I'm sorry. I'm not solving world peace. I can't find my own peace. Okay. I'm working on just personal. No, it's more personal things. It's oftentimes like, why didn't I do that? Why did I do that? Why did I say that? Why didn't I say that? Oh, I forgot to do that. That person thinks this about me. I think this about me. Okay. Do you answer those questions? Are you able to come up with an answer for those questions? No. No. It's a constant spinning. Really, honestly, when I get in that mindset, there's nothing productive that comes from it. Because I think answering those questions, journaling those questions, that can be helpful. But just, just ruminating, think how chewing cudd, that's more what it's like. So I used to struggle with this too. And that's when journaling really took off for me. Yeah. Because as long as it stays in my head. Yeah. It just spins, it just spins. If I put it down on paper and I can see it, I'm like, oh, I clearly see what I need to do with that. So that's where that's why I was asking you. Because some people can answer those questions in their head and go, oh, I did that because of this. And I did, you know, you can connect those dots. But I feel like rest can come if going back to our last podcast, if you realize what's your job and what's God's job, right? Yeah. Right. I just, I read this quote, and I'm going to share it with you because when I read it, I was like, oh, that can only hurt someone else when I share it. I'm warning. Yeah. Unbelief keeps us from rest. Okay. I know my toes. I know. I know because I was this exact same place. In that, we believe that we're in charge of more than we're actually. Yes. Yes. So that unbelief keeps us from the rest that God promised for us. And culture says that relaxing a day at the spa or an expensive vacation, those are the things that culture tells us are going to make, you know, rest possible. That is not true. Yeah. That is absolutely false. Yeah. Doesn't I can, you know, there's a place I love to go walk. I can go sit on a bench and it cost me zero dollars and zero cents other than the gas to go the half mile that to get there. And I can experience more rest than if I took a three hour long nap. Yeah. Well, and I think a lot of that gets back to what we actually are meaning when we talk about rest. Yeah. It's not physical rest. But emotional and spiritual rest. Yeah. You know, that it's physical rest isn't what satis doesn't satisfy. You know, you can go sit on the beach and have a fit and not move and have physical totally veg out. You can sit in your backyard. You can take an app. You can do all kinds of things that will give you physical rest. But the rest that we also desperately need is the surrender of all of the junk, all of the things that we're carrying. You know, God says that, you know, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden are burdened down. And I will give you rest. You know, take my yoke upon you. Basically, I explain it. I'll carry all of the switching the yoke. Well, so part of it is, sorry, my phone's going to ring right in the middle of me trying to say something and explain this. That's your to do list. It gave me more time to think about the yoke. So a yoke puts two oxen together. And so one oxen can pull, I'm going to make numbers up because I'm not an oxen expert. Actually, let's say I don't know, pull 100 pounds. Well, two together are going to pull like 300 pounds or 400 pounds. So when Jesus is saying, take my yoke upon you, it's basically him saying, you know, I'm going to carry the more weights. I'm going to, I want you to saddle up alongside me. And I'm going to actually carry all your stuff for you. You're going to still keep moving in the same direction. We're going to go together. We're going to be tethered as oxen would be tethered. And we're going to go together. We're going to do the things together. But, you know, I'm my, I'm going to make it lighter for you. I'm going to be able to help you carry all of those things. That's good. Yeah. That's again, not an oxen. Yeah. Or yoke. You did all of the specialists, specialists are proud of you. I had a very practical experience with this couple of years ago. I would find that on Sunday, when I would get ready to go back to, we're going to be like, I don't feel like I had a weekend. Oh, yeah. Like in Monday morning, I was just as tired as I was on Friday afternoon, right? And the Lord said, I want you to cancel TV. I was like, wait, what? I want you to cancel TV. He said, because I didn't hear an audible voice, but in my heart, he said, the things that you are turning to during your weekend aren't refreshing, you aren't giving you rest. They're draining you more. Because I would go home and turn on show that I wanted to, I got into a loan. You know, that when they dropped people off in the middle of nowhere and they have to survive and all those things. And I would go, yeah, I would go, you know, and binge watch a show like that and think that that was going to fill me up. And God said, cancel your TV. And I was like, I don't know if I want to do that. I might miss something. He was like, okay, so you'll miss something. You know what? I missed a lot of things. And I didn't know it. Great. And I was completely okay with that. And you're probably better for it. Well, probably, yeah. Absolutely. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Because here's what it did. It quieted my house. My daughter happened to be working during this time period. So I was there by myself. And I didn't have an easy switch that I could flip the TV on and say, okay, this mindless thing, this thing that I call mindless. It is. So what I will say is that whatever you consume shapes you. Yeah. Good, bad, indifferent. 100%. Everything is something is shaping you. And you get to decide what shapes you. And God just taught me a big lesson during that time to say, the things that are shaping you are wearing you out when really what you need is to be filled back up with me. I mean, I think of Psalm 23. Lord, it's my shepherd. I shall not want. He leads me beside still waters, right? Green pastures. He restored my soul, not a Netflix binge. That doesn't restore my soul. That's not that's why I was waking up on Monday morning as tired as if I'd never had a weekend, right? Well, and I think, you know, to get back to this, the scripture that I just referenced a minute ago, the end of that, take my yoke upon you. It says, and I will give you rest for your souls. He's not saying I'm going to give you rest for your body. That take saddling up to Jesus. Yeah. It is not giving doesn't give us rest for our bodies. That's not the point. The point is to give us rest for our souls because we keep filling our souls with things that are not helpful. They're just distracting us. Yeah. I think a lot of what we call rest is actually distraction. But I want to let me just ask about what you just said because personally, I am struggling with sleep, not getting sleep, not getting good rest. I've got sleep at me. I'm working through it. But the point is, can I mean, I think. You have to get some physical rest before you can really experience spiritual rest and my right or not I don't know. I'm this is actually a question to debate I don't think I can focus on what God's saying if I'm flat out exhausted all the time Like I honestly think they're two separate things. Okay. Yeah, I think they're two separate things. I think we No one will argue that sleep is an important part that that affects everything if you don't get good sleep All these health you know things are gonna start popping up. So so physical sleep is definitely think but I think Spirit I think God's rest and the rest that God calls us to Are two totally separate things. Yes, but don't you think you have to have them both or no? You know, I don't think so He says well, I've been trying to go over the scripture. It says he grants sleep to those he loves and when I'm lying in bed I'm trying to sleep. I'll kind of think about that and I'm like God. Please grant me sleep So I'm thinking about getting sleep because of God's love, but no, you you still think I still think they're two totally separate things because I can I'll use just something from my life. I can feel completely filled up and physically exhausted Yeah, like after having poured out or done a ministry something. Okay, I get that. Yes, and I can feel Completely rested and spiritually dry. Uh-huh. So I think they're two separate things. Yeah Um, at least for me. I don't I don't know about for everybody, but but for me I find now is it easier to hear from God when your body is not tired I will say yes, that is true But I believe part of that is the environment that you put yourself in. Uh-huh And sometimes when I get quiet with God, I'll fall asleep and I don't beat myself up for that I'll say that must have been what I needed. Yeah, like that's a gift. Thank you God for a little bit of sleep Right, yeah, and so I think they can be two separate things that don't think they're connected. I don't think they have to be Yeah, I agree and I also think that it can be a barrier to get finding soul rest spiritual rest by thinking I have to have physical rest first Mm-hmm, that That's not they are they're they're separate because if we say that I can only get spiritual rest If I first am physically rested, mm-hmm, then we're not I mean we're never gonna get to a place where we get spiritual rest because we're never gonna get to our We're always exhausted. We're always tired. We're always some of us more than others Some of us get more sleep than others, but we're always gonna have that physical limitation Because we are people because we're humans. We're always yeah, finite strength. Yeah, and the older we get girlfriend It is I don't think I'm I don't mean that you have to prioritize physical rest above Trying to connect and rest in Jesus, but I was just thinking that it's important to try to your best to get the rest that you can get on a physical level so that you can no one Because if I yeah if I didn't sleep well on saturday night, boy I struggled to pay attention to past or Bruce on Sunday even though he's hilarious and fun and always brings good stuff But I don't mean that's above Spiritual rest. I just mean I think for me I have to do what I can to get the rest that I need on a physical level um, but But God's spiritual rest is more important. Yeah, I do know that. Yeah, yeah, but I don't think anybody takes away the fact that you know When you don't physically rest everything's effective. You just slide into mental illness. Yeah, and I you know Go back to when my daughter was small, you know, I I was getting four hours maybe a night and but but That was different than than the spiritual rest that we're talking about about here and I feel like spiritual rest too Is a gift and it also Relives me from striving explain that Is there something you were gonna oh, yeah, I was gonna say I have a very practical example. Okay, give it to us so um, you know parenting is tough parenting is really really I don't never have a struggle with parenting I don't know what you're talking about and I worry all the time and so I find myself constantly In uh not in the state of rest, right because I'm worried about yes I'm worked up. I'm worried about the decisions that he's making. I'm worried about the friends that he's surrounding himself with I'm worried about, you know, what he's doing on his computer when I'm not watching, you know I'm worried. I worry. I worry. I get all tense and my body starts getting all tense and The other day, I was like, God, I've got to give this to you. I've got to let this go So I walked into my son's room and I just walked around his room and I prayed and I prayed out loud and I prayed and I prayed out loud and I did it for probably 10 minutes and just Cryed out to the Lord and said, God, I give it all to you. I give all the worries. I give all of it I give all of it to you and I walked out of that room feeling so much lighter And having rest and I'm not I'm not I pick it up a little bit But I'm not picking it up like I was, you know, I'm not picking up that chronic anxiety Um that my grandma you say you're not barry and trouble and that yeah I can feel in my gut, you know, get all that tension and stress and I have a whole lot less of that because I just surrendered it And so that's where I'm getting a little bit more of my rest is in that Surrender of just saying, God, I give him to you. I give everything to you. I give whatever it is that I don't even know about I give it all you, you know, I love that and it reminds me of The times that I have prayed Truly prayed and given it over to God versus Prayer and I don't know. I'm the only one that does this but I pray and just rehearse my worries out loud um instead of The the transaction of giving it over to God in prayer because I believe he hears me I believe he cares and I believe I can leave it with him versus I'm just going to pray about all these things that I'm worried about but I'm never actually releasing it to you God So it's not even about picking it back up. It's about never letting it go and God's really worked with me on how to pray and you know really praying not worrying out loud Yeah, well, that's good. I want you to think about when you were a child. Yeah when you were a child Let's say six years old when you were six years old. Did you ever worry about how the power bill was going to get paid? No Did you ever worry that you weren't going to have food? I might worry if it was going to like be liver and onion. I know my mom made liver and onions too I might wonder what's gonna be okay If I would have food don't never worry about a child with a loving father does not worry Yeah, because they know Their needs are going to be taken care of I can remember I was a bad daddy's girl And I can remember being about six years old and we it we got one of those thunderstorms that just rattled the windows You know what I'm talking about and I got so scared and I went and I Nuzzled my way up next to my daddy because I knew everything was gonna be all right and so God has been so gracious to give me some of those pictures in my mind when I start to worry and I don't experience the rest that I know he wants for me To say Carol you're my child And my earthly daddy was flawed. He was a human person, but my Heavenly Father is perfect And when I think of it in that context I can rest I can nuzzle up beside Jesus And rest there because I know a loving father's gonna take care of his kid, right? And that is what he calls us That is what we are we're children of God, right? And so we can experience that rest Because we know our loving father's got everything under control Yeah, he's got and we're not that's right. Yeah, we don't have to control it. Man, and I'm so grateful Absolutely, but I don't have to I don't really have to control it But we want to we want to we know the right way But he knows the better way and I have to continually remind myself of that Yeah, you can rest because he's got it all under control and he knows the right way So unbelief keeps us from rest Yeah We're back there. Yeah, and so let's just call it what it is Unbelief just go to God with say and and say essentially what you did. Yes. Yes. Yes. How do we take that truth and not turn it into more self Wacking condemnation okay, it is okay unbelief confess it okay, and then I I think that you talk that over with the Lord Yeah He's he's his whole invitation go back to the gospel visit the gospel every single day The love and say in Lord I believe what you did through Jesus on the cross That's not just a doorway. That's where we need to live. That's the living room You know what author says it's a living room of the Christian life not the doorway, right? That's where we need to live the gospel Because that is where we're that's the only place we'll find peace and rest Because that constant striving what culture tells us is you have to earn rest you have to produce you have to do all the things Another checklist of things to do And it's only through the gospel that we can experience that rest only through that His love demonstrated. Oh absolutely. Yes. Yes. He settled everything. Yeah. He's done all the earning. Yes There's nothing left for us to earn. That's exactly right. Yeah, at least from a spiritual perspective And so we just confess our unbelief Lord my feelings are today that I got to make all this happen right and I know that's not true. So we Would you help me to believe your true? And it's so, it's difficult because it's totally different from the way the world works. You know, the world actually says you have to earn exposy, you know? Your boss might say vacation. You have to earn your vacation. You've got to earn your rest. Your boss might actually say that, but Jesus is not going to. Right. Yeah. I mean, there's so many scriptures I've thinking about Matthew 11 come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you one rest. Rest. Come to me. There's the invitation. Right. Um, John 15, I'm the vine you're the branches, um, Jesus often when he would be with crowds of people, he would send the crowds away and he would go and rest when he, yeah. And um, so that rest is available as possible. Yeah. Will we receive it? Can we lay down our striving long enough? Can we admit that we don't have it all together and that's okay and we're not in control and that's okay. That's okay. It's better. That's hard. Are we willing to leave the things that we use to distract ourselves and experience God? Mm. I want to. Yeah. It's so worth it when you do. It is. It is. So don't allow rest to be something that you reward yourselves with with after you think you've done enough, reward yourself with God's rest because it's a gift and he can restore your soul. And maybe you're listening to this and you're like, I want rest, but I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. Can I invite you to text the word Jesus to 81891? We're going to share the gospel with you. You'd like need to revisit the gospel today or maybe for the very first time ever. You can text the word Jesus to 81891. We'll send you the gospel and you can experience that for maybe for the first time or maybe just another time to make it your living room instead of the doorway, right? We all got to stay in the gospel and then the sacrifice that Jesus paid for us on the cross. That is our deepest desire here at the Girl Talk podcast. So thank you for joining us. We are praying for rest for you. God's rest, the gift of rest, and we hope you find time to do that today. And we're going to save you a seat next time we gather around these microphones for the next Girl Talk podcast. Okay, a couple of thoughts, Michelle. I think this is a great suggestion. Michelle said that the Psalms are so soothing to fall asleep with and later study, like study it later on. But she said subconscious listens even when we're sleeping. That's such a good thought to just have like a Bible app or something on like Spotify maybe and just play scripture and like meditation music maybe because that's just getting the word in. Yeah, maybe don't pick like a scary song. David can get a precarctory song. David can be like, "I'm so sick of my soul because King David was British, I guess, little known fact." Yes. And known to us. And then also Allison said, "Are there any core scriptures you can share that she could repeat to herself when she's struggling with this? Like what's something that you can just like, just turn on in your mind?" And I think that was the listening to the Psalms will help with that. But is there anything that you can go to today come to me all who are weary and heavy lightning? I will give you rest. Yes. That's one of my go-to's. Rest for your soul. Yeah. Cast all your cares. Yeah. First Peter. Yeah. Because he cares for you. I say that to myself a lot, and that casting is such a, it's such a physical word. It's casting. It's throwing. It's getting out of here on him because he cares for you and that is such a receiving word. Yeah. Casting and receiving. Yeah. And then just to remember, again, the model of Jesus, that that's what he did. You know, I want to be like Jesus. If we can remind ourselves, this is the habit that Jesus had. Jesus's pattern was to go away. He went to the garden. He went to the other side of the see a gallery. He went to the bottom of the boat and took a nap. You know, if he did it, we should too. And he was fully God and fully man. That's right. Yes. That's right. Yes. But if he needed it, yeah. Right. Right. My therapist reminds me every other week was Jesus ever in a hurry and when did Jesus try to prove himself? Yeah. And you don't find it. You look all over scripture, Jesus was never in a hurry and he never tried to prove himself to anybody else because he was about his father's business. Yeah. So let's do that. Let's just be about our father's business. Amen. Love it. We'll see you in a couple of weeks. Yeah. Thanks for being here. We love you. (upbeat music)