Strengthen Your Firm Foundation through Powerful Rest
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- Updated May 27, 2022
“In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation” (1 Peter 5:10).
A friend of mine has been declaring “firm foundation” over her life by playing a worship song on repeat which perfectly exudes those sentiments. Laser-focused on the lyrics with her air pods muting out the distractions around her, the truth she is intentionally proclaiming over her life is taking root.
What we listen to matters. The world will gladly wear us out. We are in the world, but not of it. It’s a phrase we hear a lot, but what exactly does it look like to live in a world we know we do not fit into, but nevertheless, is our mission field? It looks like my friend, laser-focused on the truth God is proclaiming over her life in this season.
Peter wrote of God’s kindness to call on us. We are already chosen. God has adopted us into His family, and we will inherit His Kingdom, through Christ Jesus. But His Kingdom is yet to come, and until then, every effort we exude to stay laser-focused on what we’re listening to matters.
I watched as my daughter became pale and drained of energy. “You are a rockstar,” her doctors told her, and because she is, I forget the battle she fights with Type 1 Diabetes every day. “Please don’t feel like you have to manage all of this on your own,” her doctors advised her, “ask for help, take a break, and lean on your parents when you get burnt out.” People with Type 1 Diabetes have a pancreas that has quit on them. They are insulin-dependent, not because of anything they have ever done wrong, and sometimes despite doing everything right.
“Do you need a day to rest?” I asked my daughter after a string of days when her insulin pump stopped working and her sugar was all over the place. Reminding her of what her doctors said, she teared up in relief that someone saw her, and nodded her head yes.
“In His kindness …”
Peter’s words are playing in repeat in the air pods of my heart today, as I choose to stay laser-focused on how to show kindness to my daughter when she needs a day to rest. God is so faithful to rescue us from ourselves, over and over again. He sees it all, knows it all, and though we wander and wear ourselves out, He is never reluctant to come to our rescue. His kindness is like no other. The kindness of the Lord is like an oasis in the desert – an embrace, not just physically, but the embrace of what it means to be seen, and unconditionally loved.
Peter continued, “God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus.” Life within the love of Christ enables us to live in a way we could never accomplish on our own. Not in stature or accomplishment, but in the gravity of peace and contentment we possess regardless of circumstance. Jesus enables us to see the good in people, and in ourselves. Through Jesus and Jesus alone, we come to the Father. He has given us His Holy Spirit, the third person of our Triune God, to dwell in us, promising we are never alone.
The way we see our children and have compassion on them in weak moments is a fraction of the love our Father has for them, and for us. On this earth, full of chaos and distraction, we are called to bring the love of the Lord to the people He has purposefully placed around us. Love takes the time to notice. Love makes an effort to focus. Love knows there is good in everyone and chooses to see it over the bad parts in all of us.
Disease isn’t fair. It’s a consequence of this broken world, cursed with sin, and aching to be restored to its original design. The Kingdom of Heaven is coming, and when it does, there will be no more sickness, no more cancer, no more auto-immune diseases, wars, suicide bombers, and heartless crimes against humanity. There is a lot of tragedy and heartbreak, pain and injustice in the world. We could choose to focus on it, dwell on it, and ache in frustration that we cannot find the wherewithal to rid the world of it. We are called to fight the good fight of faith, but we are also called to rest. We must rest in the power of the Lord, and literally take time to rest.
“So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation,” Peter wrote. Perhaps the most endearing quality of God is His mercy and compassion towards us. His restorative power and miracle-working healing and provision is endless. He aches for relationship with us as much as we yearn for relief. “After you have suffered a little while,” brings my daughter and all of the others who suffer from incurable diseases to mind. Without taking insulin, they can’t survive. Managing their disease is life or death. Some days, though they do everything right, it doesn’t allow them to function normally.
“…after you have suffered a little while …”
Though not all of us know what it’s like to suffer from an incurable disease, we can relate to the helpless feeling of the incurable sickness of sin in our lives, and in our world. To think, one day, my daughter won’t have to count all of the carbs in her food before she eats so she knows how much insulin she needs to survive that meal, snack, or night at the movies. She won’t need to wake up in the middle of the night to drink a juice box and eat peanut butter crackers so her low blood sugar doesn’t land her in the ER. To wonder if she’s sipped enough Gatorade to make it through dance class without crashing, or be completely zapped and pale after her sugar has taken her life hostage and gone mountain climbing – or the tech we are blessed to rely on has glitched or failed completely.
Rest. “He will restore, support, and strengthen you…”
It can be easy to question where restoration, support and strength are in moments when our physical bodies have hijacked our ability to function. That’s where the importance of rest comes into play. Just as my friend has been laser-focused on the lyrics proclaiming a firm foundation in her life, so too we need to embrace a day of rest, to rest in the arms of Jesus, and let Him fight for us. To rest in His Word, and allow it to restore us. To rest, in the support of the people God has faithfully and purposefully placed in our lives and extending arms of His love. Rest, in the strength of the Lord, who promises, “in our weakness, He is strong.”
We need laser-focused rest, in prayer, talking to God about life and all of the reality we wade through each day. Resting in His listening ear and caring embrace, the Spirit fills us afresh. In our weakness, in the painful and incurable disease of this world, God is still God. He is in control, even in unfair situations. Though not every wrong can be righted this side of heaven, His faithfulness never fails us. In fact, when we acknowledge our need to rest in Him, He meets us right where we are at, ready to provide only what He, Jehovah Jireh, is capable of providing. The exact remedy for the plight of our hearts, the pain in our bodies, and the yearning in our souls to come home to heaven and be healed completely.
“He will place you on a firm foundation.”
When we rest in Him, He is faithful to firm up the foundation of our faith, mending any cracks and massaging out any strains. He will strengthen weak spots and support us when we cannot bear the weight of the everyday world. Purposefully, in resting with Him, we experience the most growth. Children grow in their sleep. It’s possible to put our tiny children to sleep at night and awake fresh the next morning to a taller toddler, a teenager with a lower voice, or a daughter who wakes with a clearer vision on her calling.
Rest.
Rest in the Lord. So we can be noticers of the people God has placed in our lives, and know when to extend the loving arm of rest to them, through Jesus.
Rest in the kindness of the Lord.
Rest in His calling to share in His eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ.
Rest in Him through suffering.
Rest in the truth that our suffering is temporary.
Rest in His restoration.
Rest in His support.
Rest in His strength.
Rest on the firm foundation He has placed us on.
The diagnosis of my daughter’s T1D is still fresh in our lives. We rested in a nice big hug before she laid down to rest and I gathered myself to focus on writing this piece. A hug laced in the kindness of God, who called us to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. A hug to relieve suffering, and remind us he is restoring, supporting and strengthening us as we rest. He is placing us on a firm foundation, embracing us. We are never alone. Rest in the truth of God’s unconditional love. Let’s choose to have open eyes, soft hearts, and be laser-focused on the truth God is proclaiming over our lives.
More from this author
Faith Is a Verb
The Powerful Impact of a Life Well-Lived
What Exactly Is the Power of Prayer?
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/petrenkod
