Rest

Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ Jeremiah 6:16 ESV

But God was using him even if he did not see it. Maybe not with those people, or maybe they did hear in some way. But future generations would hear his recorded words. And I reflect on them today.

Am I guilty too of not wanting to walk in the path laid out before me? Jeremiah 6:16 says a few things about how to go about walking these paths.

First – Stand. Nothing active there… well, except you you have to support yourself and be still. I think of a parent telling their child to stand in a certain spot while they unbuckle another child in a busy parking lot. They want them to be still and wait not moving – just stand. It’s not as easy as it sounds. We get distracted, bored, anxious… we want to move. But first, we must stand.

Second – Look. A definition of this would be to “direct one’s gaze toward someone or something or in a specified direction”. I like how it says gaze. He’s not saying in this verse to just give a quick “left, right, left” look down the road. He wants us to gaze – really focus on what is on the road. Search for the path he is calling you to follow.

Third – Ask. In this verse, ask for the ancient paths – the paths of our forefathers – of Adam, Abraham, Moses. But mostly of God in his creation of the world. We are to stand, look, and ask for these ancient paths, the good way. Not the way of the world, but the way of God. That narrow “gate” Matthew 7:13 mentions.

Finally – Walk. And now we take action. We might have waited, standing, looking, asking, for some time. BUT God will always call us to walk. At times it feels like he will never ask us to take the next step. We can become distracted by the things of the world, by our daily busy lives, by even doing good things. Maybe God is waiting to be sure you are ready to be obedient to his call. But to find rest in all this we need to walk in the ways of the LORD, those ancient paths.

Will you take that ancient path and find rest? It’s not popular today. It is certainly not easy. The ancient path is what anchors us to God and gives us strength to fight the good fight. This path keeps us close to him, reminds us that he is in control, and brings us peace. For me, I stay on this path by reading his word daily, studying it and listening to what he wants me to learn that day. It opens my eyes to the way he wants me to walk and respond to the situations in my life. And through it all I have rest. I certainly stumble and step off from time to time, but the closer I daily stay to Christ, the easier it is to get back on the path.

Don’t be like the people Jeremiah was a prophet to – choose to walk in the path he has set before you and find rest.