FBC Daily Devotional – April 19, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Monday to you. Here we are starting off a new week, a new work week.

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I hope you've had a restful weekend. I'm reminded of the need for that in today's reading, in our reading plan in Mark chapter 6.

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There's this really interesting scene where the disciples had been out doing a bunch of ministry, and they come back to Jesus, and we read of it in verse 30, where they come back to Jesus and report on everything that happened, all the things that they'd done, all the things they'd taught, and so forth.

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And then Jesus says to them in verse 31, Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.

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I'm wondering this past weekend. Did you Did you get any extra rest? Did you get aside to a deserted place and rest a while?

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Now remember that the Lord says of himself in the Gospel of John that he is the good shepherd, and as a good shepherd, he cares for his sheep.

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Now, couple that with the probably the most popular and favorite

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Psalm of many, the 23rd Psalm. And how does that Psalm begin? The Lord is my shepherd.

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I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters.

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He restores my soul. So Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd.

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Psalm 23 says the shepherd leads me beside still waters and restores my soul.

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And then you see this played out in Mark chapter 6, where the good shepherd, who cares for his sheep, says to these disciples who've been very busy, very active, he says, come aside and rest a while.

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Rest a while. That's a hard thing to do, isn't it? We live in a very distracted age, an age that's just filled with busyness, and life has its endless distractions.

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And there are non -stop things to do. And how many times when you do get some time to get apart and rest a while, do you feel a sense of unease and maybe almost a sense of guilt for not doing something?

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Well, the Lord gives us a precedent for this kind of very thing, to come aside and rest a while.

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So even as you're watching this, I'm recording it a week and a half in advance because I realize in my own life just how important it is to come aside every once in a while and rest a while.

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And so, you know, even as you're watching today, and I'm probably watching this somewhere far from home, because my wife and I are on a little vacation, resting a while.

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But it's a hard thing to do. I mean, just the fact that this broadcast is actually being recorded a week and a half in advance, it just is a testimony to how many things we can fill our lives with, how many good things, noble things.

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And yet we need that time. We need those times to get apart and rest.

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I hope you realize the value of that, the importance of that. I mean, if Jesus did and he exhorted his disciples to come with him for that very purpose, then it seems to be a reasonable thing for us to follow that pattern and heed that advice.

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And one of the interesting things is right after they do this, they get in a boat. They're going to go to a deserted place to be by themselves.

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What happens right on the heels of that, in verse 33, it says the multitude saw them departing, and they ran ahead to where they figured they were going to be landing, on the other side of the lake.

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And it seems that there are always those who are just bent on interrupting the solitude, aren't there?

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I mean, you also think back when Jesus went out that early one morning to pray in solitude, a place of solitude, and the disciples get up and wonder where he is, and so they go out to try to find him.

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There they are. There he is, in his place of solitude, getting apart with the

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Lord, with the Father for a while, and there are those who are ready, eager to interrupt the solitude.

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Well, though that may be the case, and there are times to allow those interruptions, we also need to realize the value of letting the

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Good Shepherd lead us beside the still waters so that we can have our soul restored.

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I hope you'll be encouraged to do that. And if you look back over the weekend, and you come to this

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Monday morning, and you're just exhausted, don't feel like you got any rest at all, then maybe something's wrong.

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Perhaps even you're not using the Lord's Day well, which really should be a day set aside from all the other stuff so you can rest a while.

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Well, I just want to encourage you. Let the Lord's leadership here with his disciples, and the example that they set, be an example for us to follow.

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So our Father and our God, I pray, teach us to rest. Teach us to trust you, and then we can.

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We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, have a good rest of your