Rest in the Lord

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You know this feeling - it's the one when you're all snuggled under your covers and conscious that you're just about to fall asleep. You are warm and weightless and so relaxed that even if the house exploded you feel it wouldn't disturb your peace. This is my favorite part about night - knowing that the day is done, there is space until the demands of tomorrow, and for now all I have to do is rest.

Can we find this place emotionally as well? Is it possible to take a particularly troublesome area and rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret...? Psalms 37:7

I'd like to think so. Scripture is filled with verses about peace as in Isaiah 26:3 "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."

The word for peace here is the familiar word shalom meaning: completeness, soundness, wholeness, quiet, tranquility, contentment.

It's the perfect word isn't it? A soundness of mind with a contentment of heart. For me it's the definition of that feeling. And here it is, promised to me, that I can feel that sense of shalom, or peace and security, and non-anxiousness if I keep my mind on Christ.

So then throughout the day, when I'm not snuggled in my bed but instead dealing with life, I will keep my mind on Christ; on His love and attending care for me, and on the promises He's made and the faithfulness He's demonstrated to me.

So then when it is evening "I will both lay me down in peace (shalom), and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety" (Psalm 4:8) just as I have been, in my heart, dwelling all day.

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