Mark 6: 31 should be heard by every Christian.
“Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”
The apostles that were commissioned by Jesus to do great tasks returned to their Master with news of all they had accomplished. The work was just beginning. Many were healed and saved, but thousands had yet to hear. And in the wisdom of the ages, Jesus doesn’t tell them to get back out there, but to “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”
In God’s economy, we are not going to benefit the kingdom in our own strength. When we work in our own strength to accomplish the work of the kingdom we will certainly dry up as a branch and will produce no fruit. In Isaiah it says, “’My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.”
We must operate in God’s kingdom, by God’s ways, and God’s ways are not like ours. God’s ways are higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth. God’s ways call us to operate in His strength, and to be in His strength means you must stop and find a desolate place and rest.
I wonder when was the last time you rested. Are you too busy to find time to rest in the Lord? If so, you are operating not in God’s ways, but in your own. I challenge you to submit your ways unto the Lord and find a place of solitude today for rest in the Lord. Perhaps you need to look at your calendar and in the next week find a whole day to set aside to be quite before God. I promise the dividends will be worth it.
As I look back over my life, I have done so many things in my own strength that were worthless to the Kingdom. It would have been much better if I had withdrawn and spent time with my Heavenly Father to renew and seek His will.