There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. Hebrews 4:9-11 (NIV)

So far we’ve seen that our need for rest is real and driven not only because we are limited, finite beings, but by the culture we live in and the incessant idolatry of the human heart. (You can view the first post here, and the second one here.)

Once we admit to all this – then what? Well having the dough to take extended vacations upon demand isn’t the answer that’s for sure. In fact if you look back into history you don’t see the average person taking what we would call vacations at all. Sure life moved much slower back then, but they did a lot more physical work too. So they were probably more physically fatigued and less mentally and emotionally and spiritually stressed than we are.

If you read books on stress and time management you’ll find a lot of good ideas and tips there. I’m in favor of most of them. Plan ahead, save money so you can get away, don’t sweat the small stuff, almost everything is small stuff, etc.

That’s all good – in fact I need to pay more attention to most of that – especially the plan ahead part! But you can’t convince me all of that is going to answer the real problem here, because it only deals with the symptoms and not the disease.

As I said yesterday I believe the real problem is spiritual (in most cases, and yes of course I’m speaking in generalities here, you’re situation might be different).

I could say a lot of things here that would sound oh so spiritual and in the end would amount to little more than pap! Need some examples?

Trust the Lord…

Pray more…

Allow the Spirit to move through you…

Roll your troubles onto the Lord…

You are weak when you are strong…

What’s wrong with any of those – aren’t they Scriptural? Yes indeed they certainly are! But that’s not the question. Here’s the real question –

Yes, but HOW???

How can I trust God, let the Spirit move, pray effectively?

Ah, now that’s a good question isn’t it? What the answer? Let me end this little essay by giving you two little words. Two little words I’ve been thinking about a lot over the last several years. Two little words that are often talked about and seldom acted upon. Two little words I’ll talk more about tomorrow.

Spiritual Disciplines.