The Art of Resting_______________________

Becoming God’s Masterpiece

God is an artist and you are His masterpiece. He is the Creator. He made
you. He painted you. You are His canvas, a beautiful picture He began painting
in your mother’s womb. Then you were born and many people, (parents,
siblings, friends, neighbors, teachers, media personalities, etc.) started adding to
His design. Some things they painted in your life were the patterns of God. They
also painted some things in your life that were not of God, not a part of His plan
for a masterpiece. As you grew you began making decisions about your own life.
You began painting on your own canvas. Some patterns, colors, and scenes you
painted were a part of God’s design and others were not.
So here we are today. We are mixed pallets. Some of the styles, colors,
patterns, and scenes in our lives are God’s paint and design. Some are not. Every
day, every hour, every minute we are before the canvas of our lives with three
design choices: do we choose God’s design, our own selfish design, or the
designs of others?
Jesus is our Master and He wants each one of our lives to be His
masterpiece, the “Master’s Piece.” He wants our lives to be 100% God drawn and painted portraits. This means
removing some of the lifestyles (habits), colors (relationships), and scenes (choices) from our lives that are not
of God. God has a putty knife and a gallon of paint thinner just waiting for us to be still long enough for Him to
use it.
Beneath the repetitive pattern of “busyness” in our lives, God has painted (shown us in the Bible) a
pattern of rest. Imagine a painter trying to paint a moving canvas. It is impossible. Do you see God right now
with a brush in His hand? He wants to add something to our lives that He has never put in any other lives,
because we are like no others the world has ever known. Each time He bends over to paint us, we move. He
moves to where we are, gets ready to paint incredible scenes in our lives, and then we move again before He can
get started or complete it.
The Lord wants us to begin resting more and to slow down. In His art gallery, the Bible, he has shown
us how the prophet Daniel rested in His presence three times a day regularly. Nothing was more important to
Daniel than his time being still and being in prayer alone with God. No work he was doing, no directive from his
employer, no personal agenda, no friend, no spouse, no children, no pastor, and no threat was more important to
him than his time alone with God. Not even a law passed forbidding this time of rest and prayer alone with God
could stop him. Wow! No wonder God made Daniel’s life a masterpiece. His portrait has rested on the wall in
God’s hall of fame for over 2,000 years!
Be still. Let God scrape off the world’s and your own personal agendas. Hand
God your calendar and your electronic planner. Let God start drawing the foundational
patterns of rest in your life as you read and hear His Word. Read the attached
devotional letter from Him. Read, meditate upon and pray the scriptures included in
this publication. Stop letting people paint colors, scenes, and patterns on you that are
not of God. Stop painting them on yourself.
Right now, God wants to paint “rest” into our lives, to mix it with all our work. We
must let Him. We must trust Him. He knows what He is doing. He knows what He is
painting.

Brother Don
 Kneemail from the Garden_______________
A Devotional Letter from Jesus Christ
My beloved, rest. Come away my beloved and rest. Come with me by yourself
to a quiet place and rest. You are heavily burdened. Come to me and I will give
you rest.
Solomon, the wisest of men, told you there is a time and a season for all things.
There is a time to work, to plow, reap, and sow. There is also a season to rest, to
let go, do nothing and let things grow.
There were two sons who were each given a seed from their father with
instructions on how, when, and where to plant it. One son prepared the soil with
much hard work and planted the seed in the proper place in well prepared soil.
He then rested, trusting the Lord to bring the rain. He enjoyed his family, friends,
food, and drink. He took time to rest as he waited. The Lord sent the rain in due
season. A great tree grew from this seed. It provided fruit, shade and shelter for
many years. From the seeds of this one great tree the son planted an orchard
and became quite wealthy, giving much of his wealth to the poor. Upon his death, the first son was laid to rest
by his large family beneath the sprawling branches of the tree that had grown from this first seed he ever
planted.
The second son also worked hard preparing the soil for the seed. He then planted the seed in the well prepared
soil in the proper place. Not trusting God to bring the rain, the second son watered the seed every day, carrying
water from a well which was a great distance away. This wearied his flesh. After several weeks, and not seeing
the seed sprout, the second son dug up the seed and examined it. He then found another place to plant the
seed closer to the well, which he thought was a better location than the first. The well ran dry and he had to
carry the water further than ever before and became even more tired and exhausted. After several weeks with
no sprout, the son dug up the seed to examine it once again. The cycle continued time after time, the second
son working harder and harder, never enjoying time with his family and friends, never finding rest and never
bearing fruit. The seed was always over-watered and not given enough time to grow. The second son died in
poverty, a frustrated man with few friends.
My beloved, who are you – the first or second son? Are you doing more than I am asking of you? What seeds
have I given you? Where have I called you to plant them? How much fruit are you bearing? ? Do you fully trust
me? Are you watering when I want you to rest? The dry season causes my plants to reach down deep into the
earth for moisture and the plants to grow stronger. Do not become weary and worry yourself with constant
watering and doubt. If you do, the seeds you have planted will develop shallow roots and the first wind that
comes will uproot them.

Rest. Trust me. The gardener who holds onto the seed and does not
trust it to the dark stillness of the soil never bears fruit and never has a
harvest. Let go of the seed. Let go and trust me.
Open the package of rest your heavenly Father sends you each day
and week. Receive the new seeds He is giving you. Work hard,
prepare the soil, sow the seeds, and then let go. Let God do the rest,
while you rest. He knows what He is doing even when you don’t. Stop
carrying so much water. Wait for the rain.
Come see me as you start each day. Do lunch with me. Come see me
when your daily work is done. Fellowship with me. On the Sabbath,
leave your labor behind. Come sing, dance, laugh, and love with me.
Come. Enter into your rest…

Jesus