Rooted and Rested

Luke 8:11–15 ESV

Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

Every moment and every event of your life on earth plants something in your soul. Unfortunately, most of these seeds God sends die without ever taking root, because we are not ready to receive them. We are distracted, unfocused, and we miss the opportunity to let this gift from God grow in us.

Look at the parable of the sower that we just read. Jesus tells the story, and explains that the seed is the word of God. We usually take this only to refer to the gospel, which we are all called to share with others. However, every expression of the will of God is basically the word of God for us, which makes it a seed meant to grow something in us. God is constantly speaking to us, which means we access to unending, uninterrupted dialog with God!

Is there anyone here who would not want to constantly experience the presence of God in your life? Is there anyone who doesn’t want to clearly hear God speak? Anyone who doesn’t want to be confident that God hears you? Is there anyone who doesn’t desire to experience the empowering of the Holy Spirit, to know peace and rest in God’s presence?

We all want to experience God’s presence, but to constantly live in that awareness seems impossible. We can feel so close to him at one moment, only to be acting according to our flesh the next.

Daily living in communion with God takes practice. It takes determination and effort. The cares of this world will drain us. Even when we are doing work for God, we can get tired. We need rest that only God can provide. But in order to find rest, we must be firmly rooted in God.

Being Rooted: Finding an Anchor

There are farms in northern areas where you will find ropes running from the house to the barn. This rope is not a clothes line; it is there for when blizzard season comes. Blizzards come quickly and fiercely and are highly dangerous. When a blizzard is at full force, a farmer cannot see the end of his hand. Many folks have frozen to death in blizzards, disoriented by their inability to see. They wandered about in their own yard, freezing to death within mere feet of their door, never realizing how close they were to safety.

To this day, meteorologists in blizzard-prone areas advise people that, if they must go outside, they tie a rope around themselves and attach the other to the house. They are creating an anchor—a lifeline leading them back to safety.

Many of us live lost in the blizzard of busy-ness. We create this blizzard by saying yes to too many things. We are taught to admire people who can multitask effortlessly.

But, ultimately, we end up overscheduled, tense, addicted to hurry, frantic, preoccupied, fatigued, and starved for time. We cram us much as possible into our to-do lists, then battle to make the best use of every spare minute we have.

And what is the result? Our overproductivity becomes counterproductive. We end our days exhausted. And then our “free time” on weekends become filled with more demands.

We know we need rest. We listen to sermons and read books about slowing down and creating margin in our lives, about replenishing ourselves to increase productivity.

But if we aren’t busy, we feel guilty. We are wasting time and are not productive. We are essentially addicted to being busy, looking for worth in doing.

And in our chaos will come the unexpected storms and trials of life that catch us off guard, and we wonder why so many of us are disoriented and confused. We need an anchor— a rope to lead us home.

God is offering us an anchor in the storm, a rope that consistently leads us back home to him, to a place that is centered and rooted. And it sounds simple, but it is far from that.

The truth is, we are so busy being busy that we don’t really know how to rest. We don’t know how to ignore the distractions of life to focus on God. We have to actively discipline ourselves to learn how to do this.

More precisely, there are two disciplines we need to master: spending time in God’s presence and practicing Sabbath rest. They are part of a process of resetting our entire lives to draw closer to God. It is an entirely new way of being in the world.

Rooted in God’s Presence

To be rooted in God’s presence requires that we set focused time spent with God. It doesn’t have to be a long time.

We already teach Christians to have devotions or a quiet time. Normally, this consists of ten to 30 minutes a day spent reading the Bible, praying, and perhaps reading something from a devotional book. We hope that doing this once a day will enable us to withstand the blizzard swirling around us.

But, honestly, I can personally say that it’s not enough. Within a couple hours after morning devotions, I easily forgot God was active in my everyday affairs. I would get distracted by the daily grind, so that it wasn’t long before I felt distant from God.

As much as I wanted to experience God’s presence all through the day, I couldn’t do it by just having a one-time per day interaction with him. I need to learn to commune with God throughout the day.

What I am talking about is more than traditional devotional time. We tend to treat devotion time as a way to “fill up” our spiritual tanks for the day. Being rooted in God’s presence is about spending time being with God. It is setting up certain times throughout the day to pray, worship, and reflect on God.

Psalm 119:164 ESV

Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules.

According to this verse, David set up seven different times in his day to focus on God.

In the book of Daniel 6:10 we learn that

Daniel 6:10 ESV

... He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.

We know that Jesus prayed regularly and often.

Luke 6:12 ESV

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.

After Jesus’ resurrection, his disciples continued to pray at certain hours of the day.

Acts 3:1 ESV

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.

Our days get so busy, it is easy to get distracted from being in God’s presence. Without God’s presence, we don’t have the power or authority to fight the fight and live victoriously.

How many of you are on daily medication? Do you just grab a pill or take a gulp of medicine whenever you want? No. You take the prescribed amount at the prescribed times. That way you consistently have the proper dosage to help your body function properly.

In the same way, if we learn to set aside specific times to pray and meditate on the Lord, we will be aware of his presence more and more throughout the day, helping us to see through his eyes and respond with his heart as we face the chaos around us. Consistently being in God’s presence helps our spirits to function properly.

Being Rested: The Need for Sabbath

Genesis 2:1–2 ESV

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

The word sabbath comes from the Hebrew word that means “to cease, to stop working.” It refers to doing nothing related to work for a 24-hour period. It refers to this unit of time around which we are to orient our entire lives as holy, meaning separate, a cut above the other six days. Sabbath provides for us now a rhythm for an entire reorientation of our lives around the Living God. On Sabbaths we imitate God by stopping our work and resting.

Exodus 20:8–10 ESV

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

Here we see that keeping the Sabbath isn’t just an option—it’s a command. I know that keeping this command seems nearly impossible in today’s busy world. It goes against everything our culture tells us is important. The thought of a 24-hour time of no work is radical to us. How can we justify doing nothing for 24 whole hours?

But we aren’t doing nothing. We are spending that time delighting in the Lord. We are resting. I have said that life is like a blizzard; without the Sabbath, we easily find ourselves lost and unsure of the larger picture of God and our lives.

God made keeping the Sabbath a commandment because it was the only way to get us to do it. The thing is, we know it’s a commandment on paper, but we live like it’s an option. By failing to keep a 24-hour time of rest and reflection of God’s goodness, we miss out on a great gift God is giving us.

Four 400 years, the Israelites lived as slaves in Egypt. They worked seven days a week, with little rest. One day blurred into the next. There was no rest.

When God called Israel out of Egypt, he affirmed the were sacred human beings, make in his image. By giving them Sabbath, he was showing them how to live according to their God-given nature.

God worked. We are to work. God rested. We are to rest. We are to stop the work for 24 hours and trust God that he will take care of what must be done. Keeping the Sabbath is an act of faith that God will provide.

The Sabbath, when lived, is our means as the people of God to bear witness to the way we understand life, its rhythms, its gifts, its meaning, and its ultimate purpose in God. By observing the Sabbath, we affirm that God is the center and source of our lives. He is the beginning, the middle, and the end of our existence. We trust God to provide and care for us.

Rooted and Rested: Living in Power

If we are going to live victoriously in this fallen world, we need God’s power. That power only comes from living in his presence.

We root ourselves in God’s presence by making the effort to stay focused on him. Our lives are so busy, it’s easy to overlook doing this, so we need to schedule regular times into our daily routine where get into the Lord’s presence.

We also need to commit ourselves to keeping the commandment of Sabbath rest. This isn’t about legalism. It’s an act of faith that gives us the opportunity to receive rest from God and experience the deeper treasures of life in his presence.

Do you feel tired, overwhelmed, like you can never catch up with everything that needs to be done?

Do you feel distant from God? Do you feel like you can’t see him or feel him?

You’re caught in the blizzard of this life. All the busy-ness and chaos is flying around you, distracting you and blinding you from seeing God clearly. He is offering you a rope right now.

Bow your heads.