Jesus lived a hard life. There were reasons not to relax. But consider this: He wasn’t in a hurry to jump-start His ministry. He lived anonymously for thirty years.
During His three years of public ministry, He still made time to go fishing and feast with friends.
When His mom came to him in a hurry, presenting the problem that the wine had run out at a wedding celebration in Cana, He calmly reminded her that His time had not yet come (John 2:1–4).
He often withdrew to lonely places to pray.
When He was caught up in a life-threatening storm, He took a nap (Matt. 8:23–24).
When it was finally time to begin His public ministry, He followed the leading of the Holy Spirit into the desert to pray for forty days.
Becoming like Christ, becoming relaxed, is the by-product of relationship with Him.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are the by-products of His Spirit in us. The fruit of the Spirit is not the fruit of our effort. It’s the fruit, or by-product, of intimacy with our Sovereign God.
Becoming more relaxed will happen, not as we try harder to be more relaxed, but as we open our honest hearts to the one who is not worried about a thing.
The most intimate conversations we can have are about the parts of our lives that we haven’t figured out yet, when we take the time to process our lives with God.
For me, this looks like a conversation with Him where I share what’s on my heart. I begin by telling Him the truth about how I feel. It’s a conversation where I confess my lack of trust in Him and His timing—a conversation where I confess that I want to get my way more than I want to submit to His.
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