Day 1
Reading 1 Kings 19:11-14
11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
The Still Small Voice
You may be reading this because you can’t remember the last time you felt truly “rested”. Could it be that you’ve had that nagging feeling that something is missing from the rhythm and balance of your life and you need to address it?
Whatever has brought you here, you are so welcome! Do your best to shut out all the distractions around you. The dishwasher can wait.
Let me start by asking you something: when was the last time you invested in your soul?
These next two weeks are a soul investment. It is about deep breaths for the very fiber of your being and setting up good patterns to restore the balance of your inner life.
In Scripture, God reveals Himself in many different ways. One of His most striking of personal encounters ended in a “still, small voice” as we see in our reading today.
If God suddenly decided to speak to you in that way, be honest, would you hear it? Or would you have life “on too loud” to even notice?
We were not designed to live with constant busyness and noise! We all need rest and peace. But for many of us rest has become a luxury. It has grown into something we feel we can cope without.
But rest is not caviar or expensive champagne that we can forgo without consequences, it’s a built-in physical, mental and spiritual requirement. Rest is, and always has been, a necessity that we MUST make space for in our lives.
The prince of this world, our enemy, the devil, fights against our restfulness. Why? Because he knows how GOOD it is for us. He knows that rest connects us back to our Father, God. Rest reminds us of joy. It helps us be more creative, taps us back into Heaven’s perspective and allows us to feel wonderfully free. So, our enemy uses some techniques to keep us in a place of exhaustion and stress.
The truth is, I am happier, kinder, more alive and more efficient when I am rested. You are too. But crucially, when we are resting well, we are also more like Jesus.
Still your heart and quiet your soul today and tune in to God’s still, small voice speaking to you.
What is He saying to you now?
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Taken from Reading Plans from YouVersion (https://www.bible.com/en-GB/reading-plans/11321-the-rest-of-your-life/day/1 ) and River Publishing for this plan.