I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.

2 Corinthians 6:18 (NKJV)

God is more concerned with who we are than with what we do.

We often prioritise public ministry life over personal prayer life. We must recognise that developing a strong and healthy relationship with God is critical to our spiritual growth and well-being. Ministry flows from worship. We will not enjoy serving God unless we enjoy loving God.

When Jesus taught us to pray, He wanted us to understand that we belong to God and that everything we do is the fruit of our Father's perfect love and grace for us. Some of us may find praying difficult or guilt-inducing because we do not value prayer as the pure pleasure and joy of simply being in God's presence.

We need to shift our perspective from seeing prayer as a mechanism to communicate our needs to God to a more authentic relationship between a parent and a kid. Prayer deepens our love and faith in God because it allows us to enjoy the generous gift of true rest.

What exactly does it mean to rest?

Rest is realising that we have so much of God's ability to carry out God's will inside us than we could ever ask or imagine. Sadly, we often define ourselves by how busy we are rather than how well-rested we are. That is motivated by a slavish mentality, rather than a love for the Father.

How restful we are in Christ demonstrates our true identity as sons and daughters of our most loving Father. After all, we always produce more from rest than from self-effort. The Apostle Paul had this experience.

But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favour on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.

1 Corinthians 15:10 (NKJV)

If serving in ministry causes you to stray further away from God, you are serving yourself rather than God. Safeguard your time with God from the demands and expectations of ministry. That will set you free from the idolatry of busyness and bring you into the calm of God's peace in all that you do.