From cover of Return to Your Rest: new growth on a tree, with slender green leaves

The blessing of rest

Real rest is so different from what I had thought. It’s so much more expansive, and desirable, and enjoyable. And it’s so very vital. Thing is, I desperately needed real rest long before I knew I needed it. I had no clue how rest-deprived I was.

Two deer drink from a mountain stream that runs through a wooded valley beside a gray slat fence. A shaft of sunlight shines down from above.

My cup overflows: Resting in God’s favor

I praise you, Lord my Shepherd. You have overcome for me all the shame that ever has or ever will attach to me. You are teaching me to overcome it too. By your grace, I drink deeply of your favor, and it restores my rest.

Sun is rising above gray clouds, creating a white-yellow sky and bringing light to a misty valley between dark, forested mountains.

I shall not want: Resting in God’s provision

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,” sang David, the poet-king. Or in other words, “I lack nothing.” “The Lord hasn’t given us enough!” cried Joseph’s clan. We may know and love David’s words. Yet at times, it may seem that we lack a LOT. So what do we do with that?

Woman on mountaintop, above the clouds. She stands with her feet toward the camera, but her face turned away into the wind, as she looks out on the clouds behind and below her.

I will change your name

No longer wounded, outcast, lonely, afraid - your new name shall be Confidence, Joyfulness, Overcoming one, Faithfulness, Friend of God, One who seeks My face.

The peak of Mount Sinai, surrounded by other brown mountain peaks, and seen in a shaft of sunlight that has broken through dark clouds
Sunlight on Mount Sinai

God of the covenant Name

Knowing our Lord by name has nothing to do with calling him by a certain word. It has everything to do with knowing in our inmost being the One to whom that word points.

Stark black-and-white image from below: A slatted walkway spans the gap between two cliffs

One who stands in the gap

It’s a story from the distant past, with profound implications today. A story of glory on the mountain – mutiny in the valley. Reading it, we can see how the Lord responded when a people who had just committed themselves to be his people reveled in breaking their vows. As we open ourselves to the Word and the Spirit, may we see much more.

During a stunning pink and purple sunset, over water, the sun appears to shine from the heart of a single umbrella-shaped acacia tree.

The place his glory dwells

In Moses’ day, the Lord went to great lengths to make a way to dwell in the midst of his people. Now, he’s made the way for his glory to dwell within us.