Enter His Rest

 Since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. Hebrews 4:1

It was another great day with Scott and Emily in Nashville! Just being together has been the most wonderful gift!

As we left our restaurant downtown last night after dinner, I couldn’t help but think about how much I had enjoyed this day and how much I needed this time with them. I felt grateful, refreshed, and at peace.

As we walked back toward our car, we noticed this beautiful Presbyterian church we had passed with a sign out front that read “Come to Our Taize” Tuesday Services. We wondered what it might mean, and I was curious enough to go to their website and check it out.

It is a weekly service held in their chapel from 4:45 to 5:15 each Tuesday and then followed by a more formal service of evening prayers. The website stated: “Come as you are, when you can, and simply sit with others in silent contemplation, listen to the words of the meditative music, watch the flames of the candles dancing, feel the anxiety of the day and tension of the week drain out of you, and enjoy a time for individual prayers offered from your heart in the presence of God.” 

Is that not the most beautiful thought? Wouldn’t that be amazing to take the opportunity to do this each week? Can you even imagine how God would quiet our souls and how refreshed our spirits could be after such a time?

It was really interesting to read that this service is based on a monastic community founded in southeastern France in 1940 called Brother Roger of Taize. It began with the mission of healing the divisions between Christians and within the human family and to bring peace to those who participated.

Today, it includes 100 brothers from over 20 different countries, as well as thousands of Christian people from all over the world, young and old, who gather here at Taize each week to pray, to reflect, to search, to sing, and to find refreshment and renewal of spirit. The service lasts about an hour and is marked by its depth, simplicity, and the opportunity for “time to be suspended”. Some prayers are sung in Latin and others in English repeated into melodic chants and mesmerizing mantras that will hopefully be kept in memory as prayers of the heart.

Such reverence and devotion! Can you imagine such a service with thousands of people focused on praying to our Father in heaven! What a beautiful way to spend time with God. Talk about being relaxed, grateful, and at peace. What better way could there be than to sit in silence or with quiet meditative music and contemplate His mercy, grace, and goodness to us.

But thankfully we don’t have to travel to France or even to Nashville, for this is something we can do in the quiet of our own homes – once a week or several times a week. All we need to do is spend a few minutes of time with God in quiet prayer – being totally at rest, shutting out the noise of the world and letting God’s peace and strength fill our hearts and minds.

Rest is a promise God vows to give us and a directive we are told not to fall short of. God wants us to find rest in Him, to have quiet times for Him to fill our spirits with hope and the assurance of His love and presence. Enter His rest and be at peace.  What better time than on this beautiful Sabbath Day!

Prayer

Dear God, we so often fail to spend time with you. How sad that we need a scheduled time to do so or that we don’t take advantage of it at all. Help us to value such time, to appreciate the rest you promise to give us, to look forward to this time with you, and to take in the refreshment you can give our spirits. Amen