Get Off the Treadmill
Your Nightly Prayer for Dec. 13, 2024
by Candice Lucey
TONIGHT'S SCRIPTURE
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” - Ephesians 2:8
SOMETHING TO PONDER
I lived apart from God for a long time, and there was a stage in my Christian walk where I wanted to make it up to him. I volunteered for numerous committees and events at my kids’ schools, in our community, and in church. I genuinely wanted to take part in all of these things, but I think guilt played a part in my frantic, exhausting schedule. There was home life: attended school concerts, drove for field trips, took kids to dance, to appointments, to play dates, worked part-time, cooked and cleaned, and went for outings at weekends with the family. Then there was my other life: taking minutes at meetings, selling donated books at the mall, coordinating volunteers, watching kids in the nursery, and church choir. And so on.
For thirty years, culture (and family) had told me that you had to earn your way to God. I would lay awake at night thinking about the many lists for my week, panicking about mistakes I might make, burning with shame over the errors I had already committed. I was on a mental treadmill running so fast I could not jump off without sustaining a concussion and a few broken bones. No matter what I read in the gospel, my mind would not switch off. I grew weary and panicked. One day, I just walked away from every committee, exhausted, and did a “reset” to determine what really mattered and what was good for my family. I had been trying to fit every piece of my life together without space to breathe while squeezing devotion and worship out of my mind and out of my life along the way.
What allowed me to take a break was absorbing this fact: Christ has paid the price. I am not in debt to God. Romans 5:1 says, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” My circle of friends and mentors in the church grew, too, and some of my mentors had learned what they reminded me: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15) Peace with God is not conditional upon our efforts, but fruitfulness starts with rest; wholeness and oneness with the Lord, our Father. He fills the space in my mind, my heart, with joy and longing for him before everything else. From that place of peace, God also helps me discern how best to serve him and the people around me without losing sleep.
YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER
Father, letting go of the night’s panicked mental box-ticking is me giving up the self-inflicted penance of worry and shame. Help me to remember the truth and fullness of Christ’s payment on the cross. Help me to see that exhausting myself with “good works” and the cycle of frantic overthinking at night will not earn me favor with you; you gave that to me when I gave my life to your Son, Jesus Christ. Let your power in the night be, for me, the power to get off of that treadmill and rest in forgiveness so that I can sleep and also enjoy the following day without crushing expectations that separate me from your peace. In Jesus’ name, amen.
THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON
1. The meaning of peace with God. This is rest. Believer, you are in his family, redeemed, loved, and wanted. You will not be more favored if you exhaust yourself and lay awake at night, worrying about your to-do list.
2 . Trusting God. When you learn to trust him, it becomes easier to hand over control of your activities and even your mind. If you find your spirit saying “no” to a request to head up that next committee, trust that the Lord has a better plan for you.
3. One person you know who is frantically trying to earn salvation. Pray for this person, and even consider how you might share the truth that, through faith in Christ, he or she can get off of the treadmill of worry and rest in the truth: that Christ has paid it all.
Photo Credit: ©Pexels/Josh Hild
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