Psalm 116:7 

“Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.”

Last month, I did a lot of talking about, reading about, and thinking about “rest.” And yet my default setting still seems to be stuck on “striving.” One day not long ago, I was talking to the Lord about this…feeling frustrated at myself, that I couldn’t seem to get it through my head and heart. “Why do I keep falling back into old patterns, content to push myself into activity, holding tightly to that which I wish to control?”

And that still, small voice spoke to my heart this truth, “Because you feel like you’re not enough.” 

Can we all agree that we know what insufficiency feels like? Whatever it is that we feel we are lacking, don’t we feel like we have to make up for what we aren’t? Don’t we feel like we have to add to our deficiency? Trying so hard to be enough…

The word “strive” comes from the Middle English, “to quarrel, contend, to fight, or endeavor.” Other words for “strive,” are “to knuckle down, attack, overexert, and trudge.” (Merriam-Webster)

I have good intentions with my striving. But by definition, I am literally fighting against myself and fighting against the Truth of God. And the Truth says that I am enough. You are enough. Because Jesus makes us enough. He has made us complete and whole by and through what He did on the cross.

Colossians 1:20

“And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in Heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (emphasis mine)

“Making peace” also means “restfulness.” And “rest” means freedom from activity or labor. (Merriam-Webster) We know that God is for our freedom.

Galatians 5:1

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” (italics mine) The next part of that verse says, “Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” My friends, our striving does nothing but weigh us down, oppressing us into thinking that we have to keep trying to attain. That is not freedom. And you know what? We can’t attain what we already have. 

“Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.”