The Prayer of Encouragement – Voices of Youths Friday – June 2021
Deacon Arlene Burton presents The Prayer of Encouragement – Voices of Youths Friday – June 2021. Deacon Burton owns the copyright to this post. We reprint here with her permission.
Brothers, Sisters and Friends, we are hoping that you are well but if not, please let us know by sending your prayer requests.
Hi Everyone, it is the Third Friday of the month and the youths’ weekend! Anjesh Zode does today’s prayer and encouragement. Anjesh is 14 years of age, a high school student and a member of the Grace Youth Ministries. Please meditate on what he has shared concerning rest.
REST IS ESSENTIAL
Getting caught up in the business of the modern world is unfortunately easy, and common. We constantly bounce from appointment to appointment, meeting to meeting, class to class, and even more. Many times, we get so distracted by the ‘urgent’ activities of our daily lives that we forget to take a moment to breathe and recuperate ourselves. We find it difficult to rest.
The Bible puts rest in the context of peace, as well as experiencing a refreshing of oneself, so even the Bible speaks highly of rest. The Psalm spoke of God’s involvement in being refreshed. It said, “He restores my soul…” (Psalm 23:3, NIV). The Psalm also spoke of God giving peace. “…He leads me beside quiet waters.” (Psalm 23:2, NIV).
We could say that even the Lord Himself promotes rest from our work. The Lord states “Come unto me, all ye who are weakened and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28, NIV). He encouraged persons to take themselves away from the hard work and be refreshed through Him.
Even God set an example when He rested on the 7th day after creating the earth, as we know it. Does this mean that God was not available? I do not think that was the case. It had to do with observing the Sabbath day, which involved fellowship. The Bible says “By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.” (Genesis 2:2-3, NIV). God rested from the hard work of creation.
Loss of rest and relaxation can be detrimental to the human body and its systems. However, on the plus side, getting adequate rest can help boost our body’s performance and provide many benefits such as a sharper mind, easily being able to focus, weight control, and simply being in a better mood.
I find that if I do not rest this makes me uncomfortable. I ended up not giving myself the opportunity to perform at my best. If you feel like resting and relaxing is wrong because it is a waste of time and better things can be done with that time, the Bible even speaks of rest for the land. God spoke to the people of Israel on this matter.
“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land, I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year, the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.” (Exodus 25:2-4, NIV). Even the land needed rest to be restored.
Rest is a commodity that we all need to survive. However, as stated in the book of Ecclesiastes, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, NIV). We must not overdo resting and relaxation and we should still work sincerely towards important matters but there is a need for us to take breaks as the Bible stated, and REST.
Prayer:
Dear Almighty Father, we fall before You in repentance today. We thank You for keeping us safe and sound. Dear God, we thank You for protecting us from harm. We thank You for keeping us as a country.
However, dear God, we find ourselves in trouble, that we put ourselves in. We come in the name of Jesus Christ asking that You forgive us of the things that we have done wrong.
Father, we ask that You continue to keep us and be in our hearts now and forevermore. We rebuke all wrongdoings and ask that You keep us from telling lies, being lazy, and any other wrongful actions.
Lord, we pray that You will continue to keep us safe throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and other disasters. We ask that all citizens will play their part by abiding by the protocols so that we can help to protect each other. Lord, bless and protect those who are on the frontline working hard to keep the rest of us safe.
We pray for our youths, especially those who have exams and are in need of other types of help. Lord, You know the need of each of us so we pray for Your favour and blessings.
Father, we ask You to remember those people who are hurting in so many different ways. Those who lead us and those who are in business.
So bless us, our families, our friends, and even strangers, and our country as a whole now and forevermore, and cause it that we take our well-needed rest, as we say thanks in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Our Prayers of Encouragement are for everyone. Therefore, if you are also in need of prayer or comfort, please contact us with your request. We would be so very happy to share with you.
