“Rest for our Souls” is a term I have used a lot in recent times. I reckon it’s a result of the fact we live in a burnout culture. Not necessarily burnout from lots of work, although that happens, but a burnout of expectation, a burnout of needing to have an opinion on everything, a burnout of having too much access to everything.

We weren’t designed to live life this way and so we LONG for rest, for peace. It’s why we have mindfulness apps, classes, and podcasts. It’s why people exercise, meditate, pay for retreats etc. our culture is desperate for a rest. The reality is that true rest cannot come until our lives come into line with their design. When we live in the way we were created to live we can begin to rest.

When I was reading the scriptures today I came across a passage where the Lord gives His people a way to find this rest for their souls.

Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ Jeremiah 6:1

Let’s looks at each of these and see what it might mean for us

Look – we must be attentive to who God wants us to be, where God wants us to walk, and what God wants us to do. Too often we aren’t looking towards Him or watching what He is unfolding before us. It’s also vital that we don’t just look ahead but look behind us as well. The ancient paths that are talked about by Jeremiah suggest to us that there is wisdom in the past that we can gain. Too often we are obsessed with what is next and we seem to have no desire to learn from what has already happened – there is deep wisdom in the lives of those who have trodden the path before us. Whether we are to look before or after, the reality is without the desire to look we will never find the rest that He promises us.

Ask – often we don’t have the wisdom to even know what we are looking at or looking for. Sometimes something might look like the Lord on the outside but it isn’t His desire at all. This must be a conversation with Him, a partnership where He informs us and we listen to His answer. With eyes wide open we must open our mouths and engage in relationship with Him.

Walk – once we see, and ask, we must do something with what we now know. Obedience requires action and it is vital that we walk in the ways that the Lord has shown us once we have asked. This doesn’t mean it is easy of course. Too often we know what we should do, and where we should go but we don’t take the steps for any number of reasons. We can see from this verse that the people Jeremiah is talking to seem to have looked, and asked, but when they have found it they refused to walk in it. It seems so sad to me that they have gone so far and have seen it revealed but refused to walk into the fullness of it.

Finding rest for our souls is available to us all, the Lord desires for us to have it but we must be active in our search for it. I know that sounds counter-intuitive but if we will learn to look, ask, and walk in the truth that God has and is revealing we will experience the deepest rest. This is a rest that is available on a 40 hour tough work week and the beach in the sun.