God’s Hope for Your Heart from Luke 5
JESUS RESTED, SO YOU CAN, TOO
But now even more the report about Him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear Him and to be healed of their infirmities. But He would withdraw to desolate places and pray. (Luke 5:15-16)
In Luke chapter 5, Jesus calls His first disciples, heals a man with leprosy, heals a paralytic, calls a notorious tax collector to follow Him, invests time in the tax collector’s crazy friends and gets into a showdown discussion with the religious leaders of His day.
Jesus is a busy guy.
Yet, in the middle of all this activity, we see Jesus do something that He would repeat often throughout His ministry.
He takes a break.
There is no shortage of need and the crowds don’t stop looking for Him. There is no “right time” for Jesus to withdraw without inconveniencing the people around Him… but He does it anyway. He knows He needs to. He knows He must take time not just to rest, but to reconnect with the Father in prayer and solitude. So, He takes the time. He makes the time.
How about you?
There will probably never be a “perfect” time for you to withdraw and recharge. It’s likely there will never be a season where you have absolutely nothing on your to-do list. Yet, to rest and recharge spiritually isn’t just practical, it’s biblical.
May you make the time to rest and connect with God this week, because after all, if even Jesus needed a break, don’t you think you could use one, too? As you’re willing to walk in faith by getting off the treadmill of your life, may you discover the hope found in this life-restoring truth: Jesus rested, so you can, too.
-Pastor Phillip
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