I used to think rest was weakness.
Like if I wasn’t constantly moving, planning, or performing, something would fall apart.
But burnout taught me differently.
It taught me that sometimes, the most strategic thing you can do is nothing.
Over time, I began to see that many of the things God brings into my life don’t come by sheer hard work alone. They come by trusting Him.
True rest, I’ve learned, is aligning my mind and my body with that truth, with the posture that says, “God has done it.”
Because sometimes, you can ask God for something and still live anxious about it, as though your performance will make it happen.
But rest is choosing to believe that God’s word is enough and allowing your body, your thoughts, and your rhythm to flow from that belief.
This revelation didn’t come from a sermon.
It came from a visa delay.
Three times, my South Africa business visa was denied.
Everything was in order: hotel booking, host company letter, valid UK and other visas, yet every application was inexplicably rejected.
By the fourth try, I simply said, “Lord, I rest. You are my Shepherd.”
One day to my scheduled flight, the visa came through.
Looking back now, I see how that moment of rest set the tone for everything that followed.
Before that trip, I had asked God, “Lord, what are You sending me to Durban (SA) for?”
And I heard one clear word: expansion.
I wrote it down in my diary: Purpose of Durban trip: expansion. As far as my eyes can see.
When the delays happened, I held on to that word.
I didn’t know what “expansion” meant in this context, or how God would make it happen, but I chose to align with what He had said and entered into rest.
So when on the flight, the Holy Spirit asked me to change my seat, I obeyed even though I didn’t feel like it.
Typically, I would have argued: “This is business class; why am I changing my seat?”
I was exhausted from time zones and meetings. My plan was to sleep through the flight and talk to no one.
But I changed my seat anyway.
That single act of obedience positioned me beside the CEO of MTN Nigeria, a man I had been trying to meet for four years.
We talked throughout the flight, exchanged contacts, and that encounter became the seed for the expansion God had told me about.
That day, I learned something powerful.
When God has said a thing, the performance of that thing will never depend on my striving.
As Philippians 2:13 reminds us, “It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.”
It’s Him, not me.
No level of performance can produce what only His grace can.
There are moments when I find myself thinking, praying, or waiting on something and my mind starts to race.
In those moments, I look in the mirror and say:
Nkiruka, you will rest in the Word of God.
You will trust what God has said.
Your heart is quiet.
Your spirit is at rest.
I speak to myself because silence can give room for noise, the kind the enemy uses to distract and pressure us into overdoing.
Also, rest takes practice.
Just as David commanded his soul to bless the Lord, I’ve learned to command my soul to be still, to enter into God’s rest.
Now, if I find a single verse that speaks to what I’m believing God for, that’s enough.
I stop striving.
I stop worrying.
Because His Word is my guarantee.
And every time I’ve chosen to trust, God has shown up, every single time.
Psalm 23 has become my anchor for this truth.
“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”
That simple line carries so much weight.
It’s a declaration of sufficiency.
Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I cannot lack.
And because I shall not want, my posture is to lie down in the green pastures He’s already prepared for me.
He leads me beside still waters, not stormy ones.
Still waters represent rest and calm.
If you’ve ever sat beside still waters, you know how quiet and grounding that moment feels.
That’s what He offers: calmness, not chaos; rest, not rush.
But you can’t truly experience that rest until you’ve settled the first truth, that the Lord is your Shepherd.
When you know the capacity of your Shepherd, when you understand what it means to be His sheep, your heart naturally enters into rest.
So now, I schedule rest like I schedule meetings, thirty to forty-five minutes daily to still my mind and let my spirit breathe.
I remind myself aloud:
Nkiruka, you will rest in the Word of God.
Your heart is quiet.
Your mind is still.
Because in the quiet, God speaks.
This week, I challenge you to rest, not as indulgence, but as divine strategy. Peace is your power, and rest is how we stand in the victory Christ already won for us.
May your soul be still and your spirit strengthened in grace.
Steadfastly resting in His grace,
Nkiruka