July 14

Quiet Resting-Places

And He said to them, “Come with Me privately to a solitary place, and let us rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. — Mark 6:31 BSB

How thoughtful Jesus is for the comfort of His disciples! He never wants to overwork them. He provides times and places of rest for them along the way. One of these "quiet resting places" is the night, which comes after a day of toil. Then our lives, drained by the day’s demands, are refilled. Another resting place is the Sabbath, which follows a week of anxious struggles and challenges. On the Sabbath, we should seek the renewal of our spiritual lives by drawing near to God and resting in His presence. The Lord’s Supper is another place of rest. The Master invites us into the upper room to sit at His table and feed our souls with His love and grace.

There are other quiet places where the Lord invites us to come and rest with Him—the sweet hours of prayer, whether alone or in the house of God, or in the company of friends, or in the sacred moments we spend enjoying our home and family. Sometimes the Master calls us to rest in a sickroom, away from the noise and busyness of life. It may be a time of pain or suffering, with no physical rest, but our souls find rest there, and we learn lessons we couldn’t learn in the middle of life’s hectic pace.

One important thing about all these "rests" is that they’re meant to be spent with Jesus. He never says, "Go apart and rest," but always, "Come apart with Me." The rest is always with Him. His loving presence is what makes the rest so blessed. There’s no true refreshment for our souls anywhere, not even in the most sacred practices, if we don’t find Christ there. It’s resting on His chest, in our weariness, sorrow, or repentance, that refreshes us. Rest without Christ brings no renewal. So, we must always make sure that we go apart with the Master.