Taking a break! 

All of us need rest, we all need to get away and just breathe, rest is such a biblical principle, with focus on the physical, spiritual and mental rest. Fatigue is something that approaches us in many walks of life, we are going to face it at all times, from any side of life that we approach anything we face we need to find both things that fill us with energy and also times when we can retreat to spend time with God. As a massive extrovert I’ve always struggled to be alone and retreat but over the last year with so much time thrown into our hands, personally not spending ages travelling to and from college I began to replace it with new traditions, taking opportunities to get away and find those new areas in which I could interact with God. Many times we see Jesus retreat is in, 

“At once the Spirit sent [Jesus] out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.” (Mark 1:12) [at the start of his ministry]

“After his brothers had gone up to the feast, then [Jesus] also went up, not publicly but in private.” (John 7:10, ESV). [Jesus walked 90 miles from Galilee to Jerusalem, which gave him about five days in solitude.] 

“They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’” (Mark 14:32)[All the way through to the end of his ministry he still retreated] 

Jesus knew the importance of spending time alone with God, of taking that time to be ministered to yourself outside of all context and without any agenda. So when we talk about trying to be more like Jesus we should make sure we keep trying to spend more time with God, whether we’re best at doing that through worship music, creative worship, solitary prayer and silence, or through reading his word. No matter what medium we go through, meeting with God on our own is a key part to growing in faith. 

 

Prayer points-

That we will find times to go to God in prayer alone across the week. 

That in the times where nothing else seems to be happening we’ll go searching for his presence 

That God will speak to us through those times that we go to him in prayer. 

 

Written by Josh Bennett, Intern for Swindon Youth For Christ