From The Pastor’s Pen – By Brian Horrobin
We are coming up very soon to that busy and exciting time, the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
We should always be focusing on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ but this time of year gives us cause for even greater emphasis.
As I think about this important time, it occurred to me that we often don’t appreciate the message of this season because we are just too busy!
Let’s go back to a time-honoured passage of Scripture to address this problem. It is found in Psalm 23:2 (I’ll use the Amplified Bible translation):
He makes me lie down in (fresh, tender) green pastures;
He leads me beside the still and restful waters.”
The first thing I want you to see is that God must make us lie down.
Honestly, we can get so caught up in our busy lives that we will not take the time to willingly come aside and be refreshed in His presence.
Oh sure, we say that is what we want and believe and teach others that this is the right thing to do, but in practice many of us never get there.
David wrote this familiar psalm during the time in his life when he was on the run from Saul.
He moved from place to place and his life was constantly being threatened.
He lived among strangers and even enemies during this stressful time in his life.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged that God made him lie down.
You get the impression from reading this that if God hadn’t taken action David would have just burned out trying to handle the stress on his own.
There’s a lesson in that.
I urge you to let God take you aside to be refreshed.
That brings me to my second point.
God did not lead David into another round of busyness and stress.
No, He brought him to the place where his soul would find rest.
For the shepherd boy this was a lush pasture next to a quiet pond.
It was all too familiar territory for David, taking him back to the simplicity of his past.
Where is the simplicity of your past found?
Where is your quiet place of rest?
May I suggest that you purposely carve out a portion of time each day during these days leading up to Easter to just rest and meditate on a passage of Scripture?
Why not take a psalm each day or perhaps a section from the gospel narratives?
It doesn’t have to be a great big amount, just as long as you take time to do it.
No cheating, now!
You’ll need a quiet place with no television or computer.
Just you and the Lord (maybe an herbal tea, too!).
Be blessed… with rest this Easter season!
