“In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows.” Isaiah 30:23b NIV

There’s something magnificent about wide open spaces. They create a sense of freedom in our spirits, unhindered by the baggage that life often brings.

This image of cattle grazing in broad meadows suggests feeding unhurriedly and leisurely. It describes what we often yearn for spiritually when seeking God. We long to receive endlessly, unhindered by the pressures of modern life. It is what God wanted for us when He gave us the Sabbath day. It wasn’t created for rules and regulations but to enforce a rest from the relentlessness of a busy life.

Each one of us needs to stop and rest at some point. The thought of having a weekly day off from our constant busyness would benefit us all. But rest from what? The endless list of things to do, the demands of family or the need for social media.

When speaking to a doctor friend recently, they suggested that part of the reason for the rising cases of fragility in our mental health is that we don’t give our minds a rest. We don’t give ourselves time to process what has happened or is happening daily. There is no break because even when we take time: we answer texts or check out social media accounts.

Come, learn to switch off from everything and find your way into those broad meadows where there is no rush, no time limit, and you have time to graze quietly, meditatively and allow all the stress of life to wash over you as if it were not yours. 

It is not an endless rest but a God-given rest. And for those of you with little children, you may not manage a day, but an hour or so of rest can be just as good. You can make the most of it when it is given. Find these wide-open spaces, or you will miss out. There needs to come keenness in our spirits.

“A lazy person’s way is blocked with briers, but the path of the upright is an open highway.”  Proverbs 15:19 NLT

Look for the open highway and find the endless wide open spaces where your soul grazes on the goodness of God.