Today I want to share with you my notes from a teaching I did last weekend at a ladies luncheon. We broke down what REST means by looking at the story of Noah.
Let’s begin.
1. Revives the Soul
Definition of revive:
תְּחַיֵּ֑נִי (tə·ḥay·yê·nî)
Verb - Strong's Hebrew 2421: 1) to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live prosperously, live for ever, be quickened, be alive, be restored to life or health
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to live
1a1a) to have life
1a1b) to continue in life, remain alive
1a1c) to sustain life, to live on or upon
1a1d) to live (prosperously)
1a2) to revive, be quickened
1a2a) from sickness
1a2b) from discouragement
1a2c) from faintness
1a2d) from death
1b) (Piel)
1b1) to preserve alive, let live
1b2) to give life
1b3) to quicken, revive, refresh
1b3a) to restore to life
1b3b) to cause to grow
1b3c) to restore
1b3d) to revive
1c) (Hiphil)
1c1) to preserve alive, let live
1c2) to quicken, revive
1c2a) to restore (to health)
1c2b) to revive
1c2c) to restore to life.
“My soul clings to the dust; Revive me according to Your word.”
-Psalms 119:25 NKJV
“Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness; O Lord, revive me according to Your justice.”
-Psalms 119:149 NKJV
“Revive me, O Lord, for Your name’s sake! For Your righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.”
-Psalms 143:11 NKJV
“Revive me with your tender love and spare my life by your kindness, and I will continue to obey you.”
-Psalms 119:88 TPT
Jesus even had to get away to rest and it revived/recharged His life. There is a difference in living from a place of rest versus striving versus laziness. When you look at scripture, specifically in Proverbs, it talks about how they worked and the preparation they made for the storm that comes when we cannot gather or work. We have to find our resting areas in life.
For me, it is my porch, or in nature when I hear the birds and feel the wind and that brings peace. My creativity pours and pours when I choose to slow down and sit with the King. He has given me songs and words you can read today.
Revive Us (Breathe Again) by Awakening Worship: https://youtu.be/CVWCk36pS6k
2. Elevates the Mind
When we rest, Jesus elevates our heart, mind, and soul. It breaks agreement, for it requires us to release our issues. That release allows our mind to have space, causing a desire to come and hopefully inspires you to draw closer to His heart.
“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
-Colossians 3:2 ESV
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”
-Isaiah 26:3 ESV
Do you have inventions inside of you yet to be created? Businesses? Bible studies?
Take some time today to think about what resources are untapped inside of you.
Sound Mind by Melissa Helser: https://youtu.be/S5hROn3z0Dg
3. Sooths the Senses
What is soothing to you?
How would you define sooth?
Well, I found a passage that explains just this feeling:
“So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.”
-Genesis 8:6-12 NKJV
The dove helped to bring rest. The dove had the purpose to find out if it was safe. The dove found his resting-place.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”
-Genesis 8:9-12, 20-22 NKJV
Rest by UPPERROOM: https://youtu.be/X1aTqUMY1g0
4: Tethers the Heart by a Sign and Covenant of His Loving Kindness.
Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
-Genesis 9:1-6, 8-17 NKJV
Tethered by Phil Wickham: https://youtu.be/eVr22tHrSVY
What are some ways you feel tethered to His heart today?
This is what I’m calling the Ark of R. E. S. T.
I hope you enjoyed these thoughts on REST. I would love to hear your takeaways from this message or from the story of Noah in the comments.
Until next time,
Stay Tender
Connect to the Mender
Be a Sender