The Necessity of Rest

The Necessity of Rest

The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters. (Psalm 23:1-2 – NASB)

I was rushed to hospital three times in the past month, having had to call 911.

I had separate stays in the hospital, to a total of twelve days, covering most of the month of August. This explains, for those who have been wondering, why my blogs have been so infrequent of late. My hospital stays brought to mind a true story I heard when I was in Missionary Training College during my late twenties.

Charlton Smith, one of the leaders of WEC (Worldwide Evangelization Crusade) at the time, was in South Africa with His wife, helping out at the college.

His wife (I can’t remember her name) told us a story about her husband that left an impression upon us all.

Charlton was working at WEC Headquarters in London England when he fell ill had landed in hospital. A writer like myself, he just didn’t know when to stop, burning the candle at both ends, and taking on more duties than he was able to handle.

When his wife went to visit him in hospital he sheepishly told her, “I believer the lord spoke to me today.”

“Oh? And what did he say to you?”

“The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down…”

My family tells me the Lord is saying the same thing to me, and that, at 72, I need to stop taking on new ministries. They believe my landing in hospital is God’s way of telling me to slow down.

Whether they are right, or not, rest is one of God’s gifts to us as His servants.

It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,
To eat the bread of painful labors;
For He gives to His beloved [even in his] sleep. Psalm 127: 2 – NASB)

Over exertion in God’s service could be an indication we are not trusting Him to work His works through us; we feel it is all up to us

Resting

(© Thursday 27^th August 2015 – by Christopher Shennan)

He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters. (Psalm 23:2 – NASB)

Come ye apart and rest awhile,

To renew your strength and your zeal;

Christ has your labour in His hands –

He is giving you time to heal.

Anxious labour, without full trust,

Cannot be pleasing to our Lord;

He gives sound sleep, and perfect rest,

While you are trusting in His Word.

So, labour long, but take your rest;

It’s a gift from Heaven above –

You’ll find your strength will be renewed,

And you will sense, once more – His love.

Please visit My website: www.christophershennan.ca
My blog: https://christophershennan.wordpress.com/
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The Invalid by Louis Lang in the Brooklyn Museum. 1870. This image is in the public domain.

Making Room for Jesus – The Third Option

(Picture credits at end of post)

Making Room for Jesus – The Third Option

1. The PROPRIETORSHIP Option

After you have graduated from assigning Jesus to a mean place, to giving Him the prime place in your heart, there is yet one more step to take – surrender the proprietorship of your heart into His Hands. He must own every room in your heart – for His use and His use alone.

Jesus lays claim to every part of our lives, not to deprive us of anything, but so he can empty it of all that will harm us. He will then fill our lives with priceless treasure we could never have imagined in the thousand years.

The struggle is to deny the lie that in surrendering all to Him we will somehow be the loser – that we will find ourselves joyless and destitute if we do not have the pleasures we have held on to for so long.

The only way we can wrench ourselves free from this ignoble idea is to believe. We must believe in the everlasting love of our eternal God, demonstrated by the gift of His Son at Christmas.

The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying,
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness. (Jeremiah 31:3 – NASB)

Once we believe in that love, we will have no trouble at all in surrendering the proprietorship of our lives entirely to Him.

My Heart is an Inn

(© 1992 – by Christopher Shennan)

My heart is an inn on the highways of life,

To shelter the victims of hatred and strife;

It opens more widely that doors and iron gates

To the hungry and thirsty and sick reprobates.

For the rooms in my heart are paid for and bought

By the Love and the Grace my Saviour has wrought

When He died on the Cross for the sins I have done.

I reserved all the rooms for His own use and some

Of the halt, the lame, and the wilfully blind –

And anyone else my Saviour can find.

My heart is an Inn, a Haven, a Rest,

To the weary and even the ones I love best.

For nothing I do is of value except,

In terms of a payment that’s due on a debt.

For I owe all I am, all I do, all I seek

To the One Who redeemed me even when I was weak.

He drank to the dregs the cup of my sin

To bring this poor loser and overwhelming win.

It’s no wonder then friend that my heart is aflame

To welcome all travellers in Jesus Name.

 Check out my books at My website: http://www.christophershennan.ca
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CNShennan
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The Lion under new management, Located in the Street Ardleigh. Photo taken by Paul Farmer. Copyright. Used under the Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Genericlicense; please note the disclaimer at this link. No changes were made to this photograph.

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