Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy Finding Emotional & Spiritual Health amid the Chaos {Guest Post}

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Finding Emotional & Spiritual Health amid the Chaos {Guest Post}

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 10:00 PM PDT

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One cannot speak of wellness without consider emotional and spiritual health. After all, we are not just a body – we are a spirit and a soul, too! And the three work together, inseparable. I am so honored that Leigh Ann of Intentional By Grace is sharing with us about spiritual and emotional wellness today. You will definitely enjoy her post!

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The beds lay unmade for the fifth day in a row. Laundry piles atop the kitchen table waiting to be folded. Men's work shirts call from the corner chair begging to be ironed. The work sits by the computer waiting to be finished. The checkbook lies open on the counter with the rent check still in place. It should have been mailed yesterday. A lot of things should have been finished yesterday, and yet today is almost gone.

Sometimes, things are just hard.
Sometimes, everything around me just feels out of place and chaotic.
Sometimes, I just wish I could crawl into a closet, plug my ears, and sing Jesus Loves Me until the cows come home.

Recently, the hard days have far outweighed the easy days. The days filled with tears take first place in my mind while the days filled with laughter feel like a distant memory.

Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30:5b

In my own strength, I am failing. In my own strength, I fail to believe God's promises, and I fail to rest beneath His wings.

Sure, I am in His eternal rest, Heaven, because of the blood of Christ, but I am not able to experience His earthly, spiritual rest that He has offered me because I'm working out of my own strength.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

Canaan was the earthly rest that was offered to the people of God in the Old Testament. Unfortunately, an entire generation did not get to experience it because they hardened their hearts, even after going through Egypt, the Red Sea, and Sinai! They rebelled against God. They tested God. They failed to believe Him, and as a result, they perished in the wilderness and were prohibited from entering God's rest.

What's sadder than this Old Testament story is how many of us come right up to the edge of entering into freedom and fullness and fruitfulness in Christ, and then our hearts are hardened. We look at giants. We look at our circumstances. We quiver in fear, and we say, "We're not going forward. We're not believing God."

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. Hebrews 3:12

As a wife and a mom, I have found the days are hard sometimes, and more often than not, I fail to believe that God is capable of providing me with the much needed rest that I long for. But, I must put off unbelief. Instead, I need the shield of faith, faith that holds firm to Jesus Christ all the way to the finish line. I cannot accomplish my goals on my own accord, with my own plans, with my own ideas of success. I must instead say that Jesus Christ is enough. My greatest need has been met, and because of this, God has promised me a present rest, a life of freedom and fullness and fruitfulness in Christ.

The life of rest is a life of faith, faith in Christ and Christ alone. We will not experience rest here in this life – the peace, the abundance, the freedom, the fullness, the fruitfulness –as long as we are striving in our own effort to be who God wants us to be. It has to be Him at work in us for us to experience peace that surpasses all understanding.

So I must ask you. Are you resting in the peace that God has offered you today, or are you striving to accomplish all of your work in your own strength? My friends, Christ longs to carry the burden for you. It's hard enough being you without carrying that which was never meant for you to carry.

For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God? Psalm 18:30

Leigh Ann's life goal is to create a home where it is impossible to not think about God. At Intentional By Grace, she blogs about her journey of intentional living in order to make this goal a reality.

She is the wife of three years to the man of her prayers, Mark, and mama to a loveable little boy, Samuel. She takes joy in spending her days creating memorable moments with her husband, conducting kitchen experiments, researching every natural alternative known to man, and making her little boy laugh. She does it all by the grace of God.

You can follow her on twitter @n10tionalgrace or by liking Intentional By Grace on Facebook