Week 2: Restless
Weekly Chapters:Genesis 26- Genesis 48
Passage of the Week: Genesis 39
Adjective:
Characterized by or showing inability to remain at rest
Unquiet or uneasy
Additional Meanings:
Agitated
Anxious
Edgy
Disturbed
Fidgety
Troubled
Unsettled
Father God
Father God, watch over me this week as I learn more about my thoughts and behaviors. Guide me in your love and let your words speak to me. Breathe your word into my soul, let me soak it in. Open my mind to your words.
Amen.
Authentic vulnerability:
Restless can be seen or felt in different ways. Sometimes it is a feeling that I cannot quiet or rest, sometimes it is due to anxiety. This week we are going to look at the inability to calm or rest. Running, running, running. Always being busy from morning to night. Packing it in. Overcommitting. Sound familiar? Sometimes I cannot say no, or ask for help. I feel I must do it all. I cannot stop striving. Every day of the week I pack it in and feel guilty when I do not. I feel that I am never enough so I keep going, justifying my behavior. I see others and say I don’t know how they do it and then I try to do more without fully realizing this is what I am doing. I wear busyness as a badge, complain about being busy, yet I will not let anything go. I go out with friends or on a date and I cannot put down my phone and properly engage with my friends, husband, kids, or parents. I am on high alert all the time and wound up like an old fashioned clock.
Study:
We as women are not mentioned in the Bible as much as men. Understood, in Genesis 3:16, God tells us that we will desire to rule over our husbands but he will rule over us. This was one of God’s proclamations after sending Adam and Eve from the Garden, right after the proclamation of labor pains. We were decreed to bear children and live a restless life. It is almost that contentment would be on the horizon for us, but never quite reachable. We also see this with Sarai when she offers up her servant to Abram, she was not content. Though she was not selfishly trying to control her husband (and God’s will), she did through her offering up of her servant—restless. Wanting something to happen that was not happening.
Now as we look at this week’s reading we see someone even more restless, Potiphar’s wife.
Joseph, a slave to Potiphar, was young and handsome and well built (it says it right in Genesis 39:6). This paints a picture that God wanted us to see. There was temptation before Potiphar's wife. She had a restless spirit. Instead of being content and fulfilled with what she had in Potiphar, the Captain of the Guard of Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, Potiphar's position, her position, their riches, etc., her spirit was restless. She had it all—nice house, servants, beautiful clothes, nannies, and yet she wanted more. Being satisfied was not part of her way of life. She lusted over the servant Joseph. She had thoughts and told Joseph so by demanding that he sleep with her. Joseph's response was upright and true saying that he ruled over everything in the household except for her. He even says that he could never do something so wicked and that it would be a sin. Day after day she continued to pressure him even to the point of tearing his clothes from him. After Joseph flees, she blamed him for her lust and he was jailed.
Restlessness is the inability to relax as a result of anxiety or boredom.
Have you been here before, restless, feeling:
unsteady or unsure of yourself?
unwilling to or unable to relax?
stress behind it?
something on your mind?
in a constant state of restlessness?
constantly striving for more?
not satisfied with what you have today?
Yes, to all of the above?
I understand. The ability to relax has always been outside of my grasp too. Always striving or comparing ourselves to others instead of being satisfied with what God has blessed us with. It affects my marriage and my work. I cannot sit still at home when I should be engaged with my family. I pick up my phone, human connection right in front of me always outside of my grasp. Restlessness is a block to true intimacy. It makes me want to fix things or people instead of listening and empathizing. Don't get me started about work, that is a stream of my restless spirit striving and feeling knocked down. While my restlessness is different than Potiphar's wife, or my sisters, or my girlfriends, it is still striving for striving sake out of a restless spirit. We are all sisters in these feelings.
God gave women beautiful minds, and sometimes our wondrous and, let’s face it, constant thoughts, get in the way of being satisfied and content with the blessings that God has provided. Sarai similarly felt this restless spirit and did not want to wait for her blessing, instead asking Abram to sleep with her servant. Both Rachel and Leah give their servants to their husband Jacob when they are not having children. Their restlessness is punished with their resulting jealousy. Today, I cannot imagine any of us doing this.
How do we combat this restless spirit?
Gratitude for what we do have is a way to release the restlessness. Knowing that you are enough just as you are. You are a child of God and he knows you more than anyone, yet he still loves you as you are because of your beautiful mind and soul. As we think through what we do have versus what we want to have, we are so much more at rest. Sometimes in these feelings of restlessness, it is best to step back and list your blessings. If this is difficult for you, think of the basics—air to breathe, birds that sing, a sky that shines, or respite with the rain. Make the lists, even if they are just in your mind, and then breathe. Pray your gratitude to the Lord and feel his spirit in You.
Father God,
Thank You for the blessings You have given to me. Thank You for friends and family. Thank You for the reminders that I am loved by providing renewal in each season. Your grace is so meaningful to me as I put my wants in front of what You desire for me. Father, watch over my restless spirit. Remind me when I have trouble connecting with the person in front of me that they are worthy of love and attention. Remind me when I am striving on my behalf or the behalf of others that I am/they are enough. We are all Your children and blessed by Your presence. Father God, I love You and thank You for being with me this week.
Amen.
Homework:
List 5 reasons why You are a rock star OR list Your blessings.
Give Yourself grace in one area where You are beating Yourself up.
Be kind to You.
