I returned from vacation with my heart filled with lessons that I still need to learn in my own life. As your pastor, I believe that what God is teaching me in my devotional life must also have some practical benefit for your lives.

The first thing I want to share with you is about sleeping in the back of the boat. That is what Jesus did in the well-known passage of Mark 4.25-41. But listen to Psalm 91 first to hear how God invites us to rest in Him.

I dedicate this message to all weary disciples, all those struggling with depression, all those who are chronic worriers, and all those who like to say, “If you want something done you have to do it yourself!”

I have never yet invited anyone to sleep through a sermon, though some may have done it on their own, but I do want you to listen and rest in the Lord through this one.

Let’s begin by hearing the Word of the Lord.

(Reading of the Texts)

Prayer for Illumination

Father, our Father in heaven,

compel us all simply to take you at your Word.

Touch us with the Holy Spirit, we pray, and

do not let us get away from your Word

without being caught by its promises and powerful joy.

We pray this for our sake, Father, and for those whom we love,

in the name of Jesus. Amen.

There is a Dell Computer advertisement out now that features a guy named “Clay” who has 12 fingers. Clay can outwork all of the other employees. His twelve fingers make him more productive, faster, and more efficient. The other employees try and try but they can never keep up with 12-fingered Clay.

Now Dell wants you to say, “I can do the work of a twelve fingered man if I just get that new Dell computer!” But a Biblical reflection on this might be, “God gave me two hands, 10 fingers, and 24 hours, and I need to rest once a week. That’s enough.”

But we don’t say that. We buy into the good old American way of “more, more, more, bigger, bigger, bigger, faster, faster, and faster.” We super size our lives. But like super sizing fast food too often, our spiritual arteries can be weakened by the stress of more and bigger and faster.

Kirk Byron Jones is a pastor. He was climbing the ecclesiastical ladder. More and more sermons, appearances, tasks, seemed to feed not only His vocational desire to serve God and man, but were beginning to actually make him feel good about himself. He confessed,