Daily Devotions

Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favour with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favour with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:12-14(NIV)

In this passage, Moses seems to be making a list of issues he is bringing to God where he is looking for solutions. Mark Buchanan in his book, The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath gives us some guidance in our search for rest.

“The examen is a form of personal inventory. At day’s end, spend time in prayerful reflection on your day: your comings and goings, routines and disruptions, work and play, discoveries and disappointments. Think about who you met, or missed. Think about your moments of aloneness. In all, ask two questions: when was I most alive, most present, most filled and fulfilled today? And when was I most taxed, stressed, distracted, depleted today? A simpler, and more spiritually focused, version of those questions: when did I feel closest to God, and when farthest?” 

This restorative activity is the kind of rest that we find in Greenleaf's verse, 'Drop thy still dews of quietness, till all our strivings cease; take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace.'

Moses longs to see God clearly, but his vision is obscured by the weight of his responsibilities in leading the Israelites. Yet God’s message seems to be this: it is in intentional rest—not relentless striving—that we find ourselves wrapped in the presence of the divine.

O God, we long to rest in you, 

to trust in your goodness, in your care for us, 

in your abundant life.

But we don’t know how to rest 

And we have forgotten how to trust:

We seek material goods that we don’t really need. 

We befriend people not always out of love.  

We ask questions of you like the Sadducees did of Jesus, 

questions that try only to prove our point,

not to grow in understanding of your desires for us.

Slow us down, Holy One. 

Attend to us, Holy One,  

And show us that you are our salvation and our resting place. Amen