Rest & Reflect

Psalm 127:² “It is senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, fearing you will starve to death; for God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest.” (LB)

One of the quickest ways to lose perspective is to keep going without proper rest. One week without sleep and most people will be incoherent and disillusioned. Not because they are bad people but because they just need to rest. You need to rest because what often looks like discouragement is just weariness masked as discouragement. Once you rest properly, you will notice that disillusionment disappears, it fizzles away, and your heart is restored spiritually. Sometimes, rest means to rest your physical body and organs, so you need to fast.

The second exercise for a healthy heart is The Exercise Of Reflection. We live in a busy and noisy world. Sometimes, even though you are rested, you are bombarded with noise, with tasks, and with busyness. So, we must intentionally pull away to a quiet place to pause and reflect. The truth is that some of us are even afraid of ourselves. Some people are afraid to be alone. They are afraid just to be calm and even hear their own thoughts. So, they seek to fill their lives with different things such as subscribing to different television shows. Just shut the television or device down, rest your mind, and reflect.

The exercise of reflection is big. We see Jesus do it in Mark 1:³⁵ “The next morning, Jesus got up long before daylight, left the house while it was dark, and made his way to a secluded place to give himself to prayer.” (TPT, emphasis added). Jesus got up at the most quiet time of the day, if you will, and left the house. I like to do this a lot, at midnight or very early in the morning, I step out of the house, go for my prayer walk, and I spend time reflecting as well. You need to reflect. Prayer is an aspect of reflection. You may have stumbled upon this content today and you are wondering what prayer is. Or you may even say you are not a praying person. That is okay.

If you can find time to reflect, you will discover that you are beginning to have conversations with yourself. And it is okay to talk to yourself. But guess what? If you are a person of faith, if you have a relationship with God, you can invite God into the conversation, and it will become very beautiful. So, practice stillness. Get alone, sit down and be still, and do the exercise of reflection. For some people, it is journaling. During their time of reflection, they sit down and journal. God bless them. So, we see that the exercises for the spiritual heart does not cause us to break a sweat. In fact, they do not even look like exercises. They are counter-intuitive if you will.

Prayer: Father, I admit that my world is pretty busy, and my mind can get very occupied. Please help me practice proper rest and reflection daily for a healthy heart, in Jesus Name. Amen!