08/11/2026
From Exhaustion to Rest
If there’s one thing that doesn’t market well today, it’s limits. For every late night, there’s an extra-caffeinated drink the next morning. For every mundane task, there’s a time-saving AI tool. For every year that goes by, there’s a new anti-aging procedure. The message is the same: you don’t have to accept limits—you can push past them. Why would you leave a party early so you could do some chores and get a good night’s sleep, when you could just pound coffee the next day?
Yet, our brains and bodies have limits. We can only do so much before we crash from exhaustion. And this "rebel-against-your-limits" philosophy doesn’t only impact our social life. It impacts our walk with God, too. How many sermons have you heard, or books have you read, that could be summarized: “Try harder to do better”?
God offers a more restful way. We see it in the very first story in the whole Bible when, after creating everything, God takes a day to rest. God’s good world, still perfect before sin, had cycles of evening and morning, of rest and work. Following this pattern by honoring your limits and need for rest isn’t weakness—it’s worship. (Just check out the end of tonight’s psalm!)
After all, your body is the Holy Spirit’s home. Your body, with all its needs and imperfections, is a holy thing that God loves. By taking care of it, you’re honoring the God who made it. So, far from being disappointed that you’re not “doing more” in your spiritual life, God might actually be happier for you to go to bed early rather than get ahead in your Bible reading plan!
Tonight’s Prayer:
“Lord, my refuge, you renew my strength, and I can find rest under the shadow of your wings. Grant me grace for the rest of my day, and give me the gift of deep sleep tonight. Tomorrow, help me to wake up in your new mercies and to focus on serving you and others with the strength you give me. And help me to trust that you’ll keep giving me enough strength, one day at a time. Amen.” (Prayers for Ordinary Life [Reclaim Today, 2026], 95).
❤️☕️ My devotional this morning bought tears to my eyes and I had to stop reading and just look at my garden for a while.
It never ceases to amaze me how well God knows me and what will be on my heart even way into the future or just tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the 5 year anniversary of the day Covid attacked me with a fierceness that injured my central nervous system, damaged my optic nerves, and caused my muscles to weaken, my balance to falter and my lips to go numb.
I was a mess.
A real mess.
But I was also a business owner with responsibilities and overhead and contracts to fulfill so I rushed my healing and return to work two months later- so wobbly that I couldn’t even stand up straight without holding on to something or someone.
I didn’t rest and I look back and realize that was because I wasn’t fully trusting God.
I felt like I had to work to heal, to pay for physicians, therapy, blood tests after tests, MRI’s, physical training , everything that offered a glimmer of hope.
But in working all the time, I wasn’t resting, I wasn’t trusting and I wasn’t doing everything I knew in my heart of hearts helped the most.
I was pushing myself then wondering why I wasn’t healed…yet
I would tell my clients to rest, to relax, to honor their body and soul…. And here I was- staying up at night marketing my business instead of sleeping, riding Uber to the gym because I craved company instead of being content in my own gym, skipping meals because I was too tired to cook and yet knew a protein bar wasn’t filling my body at all.
I was praying to God but acting like it depended on me,too.
That if I did more massages, I’ll get more treatments, and more treatments would make me all better.
And come to find out that wasn’t exactly right after all.
So the last two months, I’ve been honoring both my own body and soul and those of people that trust me with theirs.
Instead of working as if it depends on me, I’m working as if it depends on God, because it really does anyway.
I believe that every client is a Godsend and a chance to do what I love and what I know without a doubt that He created me to do.
I also know that He sends the clients that need me just as much as I need them.
Blessing upon blessings. Honor upon honor.
Mercy upon mercy,
And they can rest during sessions and feel His presence just like I’m resting in His presence and honoring the body He created.
