Return to our rest, o my soul.

You were not created to live in stress. It’s not the natural state of your spiritual DNA. You were made to live in rest. When we fail to do that, we allow fear into our lives, and that introduces all kinds of problems, including sickness.

You may need to talk to yourself. Return to your rest, O my soul, For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. (Psalms 116:7) Return to rest is to return to its natural state. That kind of rest can only come when we trust God to take care of us and help us through all the issues of our life.

Jesus makes it easy, He says, Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:29) He promises to do all the heavy lifting so you don’t have to. He wants to do the work for you so you can rest.

Imagine that! No stress. No worry. Do what you know to do and trust that God will do what you cannot. Relax. Take a deep breath and thank God for taking care of you. Even in the middle of a hectic day, you can carry rest in your spirit so you don’t stress out. Practice saying this: Return rest, o my soul!

You are invited to come closer to God.

God is always calling us to come closer. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you— The sure mercies of David. (Isa 55:3) His invitation is always to draw us closer to Him.

And not only does He call us closer, He calls us up. After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” (Rev 4:3) Yes, this is talking about John being shown revelation, but the calling is ours also.

How far into the kingdom do you want to travel? I believe that we have the capacity to walk with God like Enoch and be His friend like Abraham, only more so, because we have the Holy Spirit. In human terms, our ability to draw near to God is unlimited. We can continue to get closer and closer and closer.

He is calling us up. There is so much more to learn and see and do with Him. There are amazing things of the Spirit that we haven’t even begun to reach. I don’t know about you, but I’m going in. Want to come too?

He will cover you with His wings.

I love this scripture, He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. (Ps 91:1) He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge. (Ps 91:4)

I usually consider that a promise from God that He will be with me when I trust in Him. I can literally see Him covering me with protection. It’s a very secure and comforting feeling.

But I’ve also come to understand that it’s not just about me as an individual that He covers. When we unit as a body and meet together to experience the presence of God, we actually gather in the secret place of the Most High. That place where we worship and praise Him, where His presence is sweet, becomes His secret place.

It’s secret because others can come in and sit right next to you and not enter into it. Only those whose hearts are open and hungry for God will feel His presence and know He is near. Others may benefit from the covering of His wings, but never enter the secret place.

But God’s not very good at keeping secrets. He says, Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. His secret is out. It’s up to you to enter in.

The kingdom of God is all about loving each other.

Loving other people is not an option. Jesus said, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:39) It’s right up there next to loving God with all your heart. It’s a huge deal. And notice, He didn’t say you should love your neighbor as yourself, He said you shall. In other words, if you’re going to live in His kingdom, you will do this.

Loving other people is not always easy. But when God says you shall love them, He gives you the means to do it. He’s not telling you to do something impossible. When He puts His Spirit in you, you are filled with the capacity to love other people the way He wants you to.

If you have the Holy Spirit in you, you’re good to go. Just ask Him to help you love. If you don’t have Him, ask, right now. Ask God to fill you with His Spirit. You get everything you need for light and life. (Galatians 5:22)

Loving people gets easier when you remember that you are not perfect. It’s only the grace of God that covers your own sin. Look past the problems and see into the person that God sees. Then love. Just love.

The righteousness of God brings peace and joy.

For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17) The kingdom of God is not an external reality as we know kingdoms. It is the presence of God within us. And God manifests Himself as righteousness, peace, and joy.

The righteousness of God convicts us of our sin. It is the mirror that He holds up to show us all the blotchy areas that need cleaning up. He does not condemn us, He just helps us be clean. By confessing our sin, we become righteous before Him. The more we allow Him to show us our blotchy areas, the cleaner we become.

With a guilt-free heart, we can truly experience peace and joy. When we live with unconfessed sin that we know we have to deal with, we may have times of being happy, but not true joy. That joy comes from God. Peace comes from knowing our hearts are right with Him.

As we grow closer to Him and let Him convict us of sin, unforgiveness, and bad attitudes, our hearts become more and more pure, and like a crystal bell, we begin to resound with His joy — the kind of joy you can have no matter what happens. Don’t pull back from conviction. You need it to live in peace and joy.