Nourishment: Rāpâ

Have you ever just craved nourishment?  How do you get it physically, emotionally, spiritually?  Because I have these questions and I want answers, I've asked a series of people to come in and share how they find nourishment.  Will you come along for the journey?  We will meet here every Thursday until the posts  run out.  Have something to share about nourishment?  Contact me and we will set a date!

Meet Erika.  I met Erika through the blog world (she's a fellow SDG sister) and she knocks my socks off every time I read her blog. She is authentic, she is honest, and oh, I just about thought she was peering into my life when I read this post.  Currently, she is writing a series on her blog about the importance of getting into His Word, so if you hunger for more scripture, her place is such the place to be.

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Today I feel like an impostor, coming here to write about nourishment when I am in much need of being feed.

And I’ve sought the Lord and I’ve asked of Him: what word would You speak through me, one struggling to learn even this? One who’s tried and failed and tried again, thinking each time that this,

maybe this,

maybe finally I’ve figured out what it means to be fed.

But I only discover my need again: I am hollow and faint and yearning to be filled,

to be fueled,

to be picked up and carried

and nursed back to health,

for this soul is malnourished and these bones feel so weak.

I’ve run in search of it, peeking high and stooping low,

Filling time with effort and moments with toil.

And I’m busy and I’m harried,

Hurried and rushed,

And life keeps me running.

When I finally slow down, when I have nothing to give, I spill out before Him:

Exhausted, empty, a soul quite bare,

And I hear that whisper,

the one I ignored in the commotion,

and shunned in my pride,

His whisper

nudging, lifting, promising Life:

Cease Striving.

Be still.

rāpâ: to hang limp, sink down, be feeble

And I wonder if I’ve ever done that?

I’m always trying, working, seeking to achieve.

But here, I’m commanded to sink down? Be feeble? Hang limp?!

rāpâ: to be lazy, leave alone, withdraw

But how Lord? With so much to do and many goals to achieve?

Be lazy?

And then like an embrace wrapped around my brokenness:

rāpâ: to show oneself slack

And I breathe deep, a sigh of relief:

Let go.

Cease Striving.

Be still.

Stop trying,

stop struggling,

Quit seeking to achieve.

Sometimes the deep nourishment we need comes in the letting go:

letting go of the image,

the lists,

and the goals,

sinking down into Him, that He might raise us up,

that in my weakness, He will be shown strong.

Sometimes we must hang limp, be lazy,

and show ourselves slack.

So take some time to

reevaluate

refocus

reprioritize.

We must rest and trust …

Just rest and know

That He. is. God.

We find nourishment in the rest of faith.

“The Christian life is no longer the vain struggle to live right, but the resting in Christ and finding strength in Him as our life, to fight the fight and gain the victory of faith.” With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray

Friend, do you need permission to be lazy and show yourself some slack? Rest and know that He is God.


To read more of Erika's writings and to subscribe to/follow her blog, More Time with Our Kids, visit her here.