{"id":1338,"date":"2019-12-19T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=1338"},"modified":"2019-12-09T09:23:29","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T14:23:29","slug":"rest-in-solitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2019\/12\/19\/rest-in-solitude\/","title":{"rendered":"REST IN SOLITUDE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe birth of Jesus Christ came about this way.&nbsp; After His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit.\u201d&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblestudytools.com\/csb\/matthew\/1-18.html\">Matthew 1:18 CSB<\/a><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are five days from Christmas Eve.&nbsp; I wanted to help guide us into the birth of Jesus with some reverence for what is coming in the week ahead.&nbsp; I\u2019m hoping and praying each of you, over the next five days will take a moment to reflect on the meaning of Christmas, letting the story of Jesus seek deep into your soul.&nbsp; I pray you will let these moments fill your spirit with His joy, your Heart with His love, and your holiday with His peace.  We\u2019ve talked about lots of ways to find rest this month, but none of them compare to the rest we find in Jesus.&nbsp; Jesus tells us, His yoke is easy and His burden light (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+11%3A30&amp;version=NIV\">Matthew 11:30 NIV<\/a>).<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today we are going to start with solitude.&nbsp; When you look up solitude in the Bible, it\u2019s literally defined as a lonely place.&nbsp; But yet if we are not capable of getting alone with God, we will never know God.  Jesus modeled this for us, as Luke told us, \u201cBut Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed\u201d&nbsp; (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+5%3A16&amp;version=NIV\">Luke 5:16 NIV<\/a>).&nbsp; And when we withdraw to a moment of quiet, we can\u2019t make it about us.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This past summer, working through a relationship issue, I had a friend who reminded me of this.&nbsp; I was telling her my heart wasn\u2019t changing, I was filled with anger and hatred toward this particular situation.&nbsp; I told her how I was getting alone with God, but nothing was happening in my heart.  Her wise words to me were, \u201cIt sounds like you\u2019re spending your prayer time telling God what to do, rather than letting Him tell you what to do.\u201d&nbsp; (Thank you Laura, I\u2019m grateful for the depth of our friendship that allows us to speak into each other\u2019s lives so honestly.) Don\u2019t make it about you, make it about God.  For this first day, for this first moment, just find solitude.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve told this story before, but my go to picture of finding peace in a hectic world is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gcah.org\/resources\/susanna-wesley\">Susannah Wesley<\/a>.&nbsp; She birthed 19 children in the late 1600\u2019s, two of them John and Charles Wesley, famous men of the cloth.&nbsp; John Wesley started the Methodist denomination, therefore she has been dubbed the \u201cMother of Methodists.\u201d  She found solitude by flipping her apron over her head, this signaled to her children she was praying and could not be disturbed.&nbsp; Here\u2019s a great <a href=\"https:\/\/www.risenmotherhood.com\/blog\/susanna-apron-six-tips-for-prayer-as-a-mom\">article<\/a> on prayer tips you can learn from her.&nbsp; If she found solitude, so can we.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today I\u2019m going to rest in solitude.&nbsp; How can you find rest today?<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe birth of Jesus Christ came about this way.&nbsp; After His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit.\u201d&nbsp; Matthew 1:18 CSB We are five days from Christmas Eve.&nbsp; I wanted to help guide us into the birth of Jesus with&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2019\/12\/19\/rest-in-solitude\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">REST IN SOLITUDE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1338"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1456,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions\/1456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}