Text: Mark 6:31-32
"Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them,'Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.' So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place."
Thoughts:
How is your weekend so far? Have you had your rest yet? Have you had enough sleep?
We went home past midnight last night from the funeral home where our Lola Onette's body lies and if you were to ask if i had enough sleep, i had at least 4 hours of sleep but i still managed to go to church service this morning without sleeping in the middle of the sermon ( the sermon was very good and i don't wanna sleep during church services...Shame on you if you're sleeping in the middle of a sermon...oops...sorry...but i hope if you couldn't really stay awake at church, i hope at least God is speaking to you through dreams while you're sleeping during the sermon....hahaha...but my advice is, if you needed some sleep before going to church, sleep at home first , you would miss a lot if you go to church and just sleep there:)).
Going back, have you experienced a day without any sleep and or skip meals because of a very busy and stressful day? I know everyone of us already experienced that. When i was still a nursing student, i used to manage being awake for the whole night and still went to school the next day without any sleep and then had an early duty at the hospital that started at 6am the following day and i needed to wake up before 5am so i practiced drinking 4-6 cups of coffee just to make myself awake and that practice caused me now to be sensitive to caffeine so my doctor advised me not to drink coffee and any tea anymore.
Anyway, everyone of us have experienced a very busy and stressful day that caused us somehow to skip meals and not to have some proper sleep.Some people call it a "toxic day". I heard that term from medical representatives who were our customers when i was still managing my sister's and brother-in-law's internet cafe. "It was a very toxic day," they always said.
Yeah, sometimes in a week, everyday is a very "toxic day". I also experience that in the call center and if you don't know how to get away from a "toxic" day, that might cause you to live a shorter life or make you look order than your real age.
Jesus and his disciples also experienced "toxic" days. But Jesus knew how to manage it. Let's go back to the above text : "Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place."
If you're going to read the following verses (verses 34-44) after this text, crowd got ahead of them where they were going and Jesus still ministered to those people and it was the scene when Jesus fed the five thousand but i just want to focus on these two verses where Jesus said, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place."
Jesus knew that his disciples were already hungry and tired so he invited them to be with him in a quiet place and get some rest. I believe even in a short time in that boat, they were able to take a nap and ate and had some rest before they met those people who got ahead of them and met them in the place where they were going. And note that Jesus wanted to be with his disciples just by themselves and be in a solitary place.
Jesus who invited his disciples to be with him and be in a solitary place to rest is the same Jesus who is inviting us to be with him and be in a place where we could concentrate to spend time with him in prayer and reading his word everyday.
He knows our "toxic" days. He knows when we skip meals and we don't have sleep at the proper time at work or at home and in the middle of our "toxic" day, Jesus is inviting us to get away from it for a while or get away from people first for a few minutes or hours or a day and spend time with him...to personalize it, just you and him. "Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).
Are you expecting a "toxic" day next week? Don't worry, just learn to spend time with Jesus and you will discover or rediscover that spending time with him will give you so much rest. Enjoy your time with Jesus everyday and face your "toxic" day with him.
Copyright © 2010 by Mari Ann Rose "Mariah" F. Gadapan . All rights reserved worldwide.
All devotional thoughts on this site are my own writings. I've learned them during my personal devotional time.If in case u want to use this material, please ask permission from me first or at least, acknowledge that i wrote it and it came from this site.
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