Release...to get to Rest

It is closing in on two months since the calendar turned a page on this new year.  "Rest", my word for 2019, and it's meaning for my life continues to be unveiled for me.  The fullness of Rest often seems elusive.  Oh yes, I can set aside hours in an afternoon for quiet reading or an evening filling in the border of a puzzle but there may still be an absence of Rest in my soul. 

There is an action component to Rest which has come to my attention again.  The action of "releasing".  I admit that I am slow to let go.  I carry a lot within and am not always aware of how this weighs me down.  So I began a practice this week of unloading some of this extra baggage.  It's been a release-to-Jesus last few days.

Releasing my need for an individual to like me
Releasing my need for vindication in a conflict
Releasing my curiosity-to-a-fault-need-to-know-information
Releasing anger and a bitter thorn in my side
Releasing my need to be right
Releasing my failures...oh so many failures
Releasing pride
Releasing the unknown of what others think of me
Releasing sin...the dark ugliness of my own heart
and knowing the covering of grace which Jesus brings
and ultimately His Rest.

Today I release more and sit in Remembrance of His grace-filled, overflowing heart of goodness
for me.