"A Summer of Rest and Reverence"

by Pastor Ben Dolby

The LORD said, “Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place”. – 2 Chronicles 7:15

The month of June is an incredible opportunity to rest, recover, reset, and recalibrate. May this devotional reflection comfort and challenge you. I pray you are comforted with the rest God desires to give you. I pray you are challenged to recalibrate or even reset your expectations for the summer months before you.

June often travels at a breakneck pace as we transition from the academic calendar to end of year celebrations (e.g. graduation), and into summer vacation.

God invites you to rest in him during each of these times June typically provides. Biblical rest, often referred to as Sabbath rest, is something God designed for us to follow: And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. – Genesis 2:2-3

The idea of rest in June often feels like a desperate effort to escape all the usual work and non-recreational activities in life; that idea is a misunderstanding of God’s design. I am confident this misunderstanding is a universal struggle and not unique to me. Taking time to do different things during the summer months than we did in the academic months is not sinful. The idea of “getting away from it all” being ideal rest is irreverent, or more plainly, disrespecting the Lord our God. 

There is great comfort in being reminded that God is with us and he takes great joy in hearing from us in daily prayer regardless of the calendar being academic or vacation. There is also a great challenge in not taking this rest and reverence in prayer for granted.

The context of our monthly memory work, 2 Chronicles chapter 7, is all about God’s activity as Solomon is finishing construction of the Temple of the LORD. The people of Israel would misunderstand what it means to rest in the LORD. I believe this entire account makes it clear that Israel not only misunderstood God’s intended rest for them, but they were irreverent when they took the LORD for granted.

When we read, memorize, and recite this 2 Chronicles 7:15 passage, I pray it is a marvelous comfort that you can rest in the LORD in prayer as you experience the stress, excitement and jubilation in the many transitions that occur in June. I also pray this monthly memory work challenges us to recalibrate how we approach the LORD in daily prayer in his Holy Word. May we apply godly wisdom and not take for granted what Israel took for granted; may we not take God or his promises for granted. May we be comforted by God but may we not become comfortable!

If you’ve been in Divine Service the past two Sundays, you have experienced a slight adjustment I am making to the beginning of our worship services. We will continue to take a few moments to recalibrate, refocus, and rest in the LORD with some prepared prayers and intentional quietness I will lead us in. 

Yes, as your pastor, I am challenging you to reset your expectations for the opening moments of Sunday worship, better defined as Divine Service, for it is where the Creator of the Universe, the King of Kings, the Holy One gathers us into his Holy Presence. God will use this to prepare for all the moments of our week after Divine Service as well. 

What an opportunity we have to rest and prepare to be served by him in the Divine Service! His promise to Israel and Solomon is given to you as well: When he gathers us as his body around his Holy Word and Holy Sacraments, His eyes are open and his ears are attentive to our prayers made in this place.

I pray you are challenged to recalibrate or even reset your expectations for the summer months. May God bless you with more time of prayer. May we not take him for granted. In Jesus’ name. Amen!

In Christ,

Pastor Dolby