“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone,” David prays in Psalm 62:5.
Is your soul at rest? Are you living in Jesus’ “easy yoke”? (Matthew 11:28-30). God’s peace is elusive for most of us! We may struggle with worry, irritability, or jealousy. Or we may keep ourselves busy all the time.
Why don’t our souls find rest in God?
Because we want to be in control of our lives. And one thing that we especially tend to want to control is our emotions. We don’t want to feel things like sadness… neediness… loneliness… fear… chaos… anger. So we deny or avoid these feelings.
The result of denial is that whenever we slow down and are quiet the uncomfortable feelings that we’ve been repressing come to the surface. Then we find ourselves overwhelmed with the “secondary emotion” of anxiety (e.g., worry, irritability, jealousy).
The Psalmist models for us the resolution to our restless living: Stop trying to control things and submit to the Lord in all you do (e.g., “Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart”, Colossians 3:15). Learn to accept your emotions before God, sharing openly and honestly with him (as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:20 a “Christ’s Ambassador” can help you with this) so that you can receive the grace you need. (And have grace to give to others!)
The first step into God’s rest is to learn how to talk to your soul in prayer. Take a few minutes to pray with David: “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone.”
Try this as a Breath Prayer:
- Breathe in slowly as you whisper or think: “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone…”
- Then as you exhale whisper or think: “Selah.” (“Selah” in the Psalms means, “pause to reflect.”)
Breathe in God’s peace… Breathe out you anxieties… Rest in God…
