Release, Rest, RemainSample

Day 1

A LIFE-GIVING RHYTHM

A few years ago, I found myself trapped in a cycle of anxious striv­ing. I was trying to check every box, meet every expectation, and hold everything together. I didn’t realize how much I was carrying until I finally stepped away to spend time in stillness with my Abba.

In the quiet, I felt the Lord pressing something onto my heart through John 15:4: “Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me” (CSB).

This passage recounts Jesus’s last moments with His disciples before His crucifixion. On that holy night, He had washed the disciples’ feet, broken bread with them, and spoken of His coming departure. Now, just after the Passover meal, they walked toward the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus spoke of vines and branches, of abid­ing love and lasting fruit. Words that weren’t about doing but about being—about dwelling close to Him when everything else would tell them to run. “Abide in Me,” He said. “Rest in My love. Remain in Me.”

A simple invitation: Rest and remain in My presence and allow Me to do the rest.

At first, His call was just a whisper in my spirit, a gentle nudge. But when I felt anxiety fill my heart, I found myself coming back to it. With time, the invitation became clearer. Before I could truly rest, I had to let go of the things that were never mine to carry in the first place. The need for control. The pressure to be enough. The fears that kept me from trusting God.

When I arrived at that place of surrender, rest became possible. A rest not rooted in the absence of struggle but in the presence of a God who holds everything together.

I would release, find rest, then try to pick up things I had already laid down at the feet of Jesus. I learned to release, assume the pos­ture of rest, and remain there. And as I remained, I began to see that remaining was an active choice to trust God.

Release, rest, remain . . . repeat.

As you consider the rhythm of releasing, resting, and remaining, which action would you say is most challenging for you in this season? Why do you think that is?