As a new year begins, new stress can build. I remember new years past, when I would stay up late making my resolutions only to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of them. Keeping track of my goals for the year was like trying to juggle birds. Perhaps you can relate. I never lived up to my own expectations. This, I believe, is one of the causes of my struggle with perfectionism. After a year filled with joy, trials, uncertainty, and faith, I sat down the night of December 31st and simply prayed. I went back to the heart of God. Instead of writing down unrealistic expectations, I wrote down one simple verse, Galatians 5:25: "If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit."
I invite you to take a break from the overwhelm of resolutions as we dive into the beautiful simplicity of this piece of Scripture.
In the past year, the Lord has sweetly been teaching me about seeking His kingdom first, and leaving the "all will be added" part to Him. Bear with me, we will return to Galations 5:25 soon. While in this section of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6 Jesus is speaking about worry as it relates to material need, I have often found myself idolizing spiritual attributes above the presence of God. Rather than being a genie in a bottle, God has revealed Himself as my Father. The relationship between father and child is epitomized by likeness. Mannerisms are picked up from the father by the child: a certain stance, an accent, or a habit. The reason for this is two-fold: inheritance and abiding. Certain genes can be inherited that influence likeness, and this connects to Genesis 1:27, "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." The other, abiding, is the more dynamic of the two. Living with family members fosters the perfect environment for imitation, crucial for early development. It's also true that the more time you spend with someone outside your family, the more you will pick up their mannerisms.
So, seeking first the kingdom of God, spending time in His presence, will result in the development of certain attributes of God. While it's still good to pray for patience, trust, joy, faith, and so on, these are things we can develop through simply being with God. The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." If I were to get a gym membership with the goal of getting stronger, I would prioritize actually spending time training in the gym. Many times I expect the results of my "God, make me..." prayers to be instant. Yet I neglect my training. I neglect the fact that development takes time. In order to imitate Christ, I need to abide with Him.
In learning to abide with Christ, Galatians 5:25 has been gently prodding me to slow down. Now, I do believe that, at times, the Spirit's steps will urge us quicker into action. But living in a hurried world as "sojourners and exiles" (1 Peter 2:11) means that my pace must largely slow down, at least according to the world's standards. Slowing down does not mean procrastinating, being unprepared, sleeping late, or being lazy. Let's take a look at what Scripture has to say about it. The first thing that comes to mind for me is the Sabbath, a command to the people of Israel from the Lord. In the Creation story in Genesis 1, we see that each creature was created for a certain environment. Birds were created to be in the skies, sea creatures were created to be in the oceans. Mankind was created to be in the environment of the Holy Spirit. "So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation" (Genesis 2:3). In Exodus 20:8-11 the Lord commands the Israelites through Moses to "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy...For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
Rest is commanded. Breathing room is needed. His grace is sufficient. I encourage you in the last week of this month to make room in your heart and your home for the Lord, and to create rhythms of rest. Worry and hurry displace our trust in Him, but "in quietness and in trust shall be your strength" (Isaiah 30:15b).
