Rest

Scriptures: Genesis 2:2-3, Hebrews 4:3, Matthew 11:28-30, Galatians 3:14, Matthew 28:18-20

Rest 

When the Creator of the Universe sets an example for us to follow, it makes sense that we do! When He finished creating the world He wanted us to inherit, cultivate, and rule, we’re told, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” (Genesis 2:2-3 NIV, emphasis added). 

Okay, so, the Mighty, Eternal, All-Powerful Creator of the Universe, who doesn’t needto rest, chooses to rest. Not only that, but He made the place of rest holy, which means ‘set apart’ and He made it a place of blessing. Hebrews 4:3 tells us, “And yet His works have been finished since the creation of the world.” Meaning God never left this place of rest. 

So, wherever this place of rest is, is a place for us to be set apart from the normality of work, to abide in blessing, and to encounter the very presence of God Himself! I don’t know about you, but that’s a place I want to be! 

Fast forward a considerable number of years and we meet the nation Israel, through which God wants to restore His blessing back to the world. He commands them to observe the Sabbath, the 7th day of rest. Why? Because He’d taken them out of slavery in Egypt where they never stopped working. 

So, to remember God’s act of love, to show the other nations what He had done, and to enjoy a glimpse of the eternal rest they were destined for, they stopped. They rested. Fast forward another considerable number of years and Jesus Christ enters the scene, through whom the blessing is actually restored back to the world! 

Through Him, we, enslaved to sin, are rescued and set free from sin, not by our works and effort, but by His grace and mercy. To do what? To enter into an eternal relationship with Jesus Christ through whom we find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28-30) and enter into His blessing (Galatians 3:14). 

We are then commissioned by Jesus Himself to go into the world and not only tell the world of this rest (“…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:18-20), which is available for them, but to show the world what this rest looks like. 

Rest is a place to be set free from hard work and effort. A place to enjoy the freedom we could never provide for ourselves. A place set apart and marked by blessing. A place to highlight the mighty works of our Creator, to show the world a better way, and ultimately to live within the very presence of God Himself. 

Rest is too valuable for us to treat it as a nice idea. It’s a gift, it’s a necessity, and the world desperately needs it. 

I pray you’ve been inspired to see the beauty of rest. Tomorrow we will look at “Rest & Control”.

Scriptures: John 14:27, Psalms 94:19, 1 Peter 5:6-7, Psalms 23:1-2, Matthew 11:28-30, Romans 8:28

Rest and Control

When we hear the phrase, “things are out of control” it doesn’t fill us with a sense of peace, calmness and rest. Usually, something’s gone wrong. Our remedy is to get things back under control and chaos is averted. Many of us subconsciously know that control is a good thing. If we can either gain control, or maintain control, we can, to some extent, ensure things will be good for us and those around us. And of course, control is good in measure. We want control over our spending, our ability to drive a car, our responsibility to lead a team or respond rather than react. 

However, it naturally creates an opposite mindset. Letting go of control = bad. And here lies the issue. Because to rest, we have to let go. We have to stop. And if we’ve created a world around us that is dependent upon our ability to keep control, then we won’t rest. At least not until we’re forced to rest and that, ironically, doesn’t portray someone who is showing self-control. Because self-control isn’t always restraining ourselves from things we shouldn’t do. It’s actively doing the things that we should do. Like rest. 

The fact is, none of us, who have a relationship with God, should fear letting go. He’s in control and that’s what counts. We aren’t letting go and letting it fall apart. We’re letting it go to God. For most of us, it’s probably not that we don’t trust God, but we’re just not used to actively letting go and giving it to Him. Just remember, there’s Someone way better at being in control than you are. 

For some of us, we don’t rest because we feel a need to constantly be doing. We either fear what happens when we do rest, or we enjoy working so much that we don’t choose to rest. If you’re the former, then trust in God once again. He’s in control. He can be trusted. Enjoy the blessings of rest in His presence. If you’re the latter, it’s brilliant that you love working so much! Praise God that you do something you love. But don’t let His gifts cause you to neglect His instructions to practice self-control. Choose the discipline of rest, even when you just want to keep going. If the Creator of the Universe chose to rest, and He definitely could have kept going, then be wise and follow His ways. 

It’s exhausting to maintain control and your body will end up telling you that. Why not practice rest on a regular basis so you don’t have to get to this stage. If you’ve forgotten about the beauty of rest, I would encourage you to re-read yesterday’s devotional. 

What areas in your life can you begin to let go of and practice rest? Your business or work? A person? A hobby? A goal? House jobs?

Tomorrow we will look at Rest & Awareness.

Scriptures: Romans 12:2, 1 John 4:19, James 1:23-24

Rest and Awareness

Imagine your life is like a wooden ship and you’re the sailor. Each part of the ship represents different parts of your life from your social sphere to your working sphere. A good sailor who cares about their ship would do routine checks to make sure everything is working well. If they spot a rotten piece of wood, they’ll renew it. 

They recognise that to maintain the overall health of each part of the ship, the wood needs to be healthy. What would happen if, over years of sailing, they didn’t take time to stop and check over the ship? What if a rotten piece of wood wasn’t spotted and it began to spread? It wouldn’t impact one part of the ship, but the whole thing. It would all eventually crumble, even though the rottenness began years ago. How would they know what a healthy ship vs an unhealthy ship looks like? They’ve seen a healthy ship as an example. 

Our example of a healthy life is God’s Word. We need to read it and see it to know what a healthy life looks like and doesn’t look like. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” The world’s pattern is death. God’s pattern is life. The rotten pieces in our life, instilled by the world’s pattern, need renewing into God’s pattern. 

When we stop and rest, it gives us the space to observe and see what parts of our ship are healthy and which parts aren’t. Now, rest isn’t the space to deal with those things, but it’s certainly the place to become aware of those things and make the active choice to renew them. When we rest, we slow down enough to see the actual state of things. We can’t presume that just because we’re still sailing, everything is good. 

For some, the reality is that you’re totally aware of those things under the surface, and that’s exactly why you won’t stop. Because you’re too fearful of dealing with them. No one likes to see the reality of their sin. No one likes to be reminded how fallen they are. It simply doesn’t feel good. 

But your story, and my story, does not end there! It’s in this very place that the love and beauty and grace of Jesus’ death and resurrection shine brightest. It couldn’t be a clearer display, shouting, “YOU CAN BE TRANSFORMED AND MADE WHOLE!” Seeing your true state, and experiencing His true love is the very driving force that causes you to love Him more and follow Him further. “We love, because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19). 

So, be wise and disciplined enough to stop. To rest. To become aware. Check yourself over in the reflection of God’s Word and renew the rotten areas, in His strength, through His Spirit. 

Please, do not leave this space without doing something practical with what you’ve heard. James says that’s like looking in a mirror and forgetting what you look like when you’ve gone (James 1:24). What are you going to do about this?

Scriptures: Luke 10:38-42, Psalms 27:4, Genesis 2:2-3, 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10

Rest and Joy

One of the best parts to rest is the enjoyment of God and His gifts. Can we enjoy God and His gifts through our work? Yes, most definitely. However, if God resides in the place of rest, then there’s even more of Him to know when we meet Him there. There’s more that He wants to teach us, show us, and let us experience when we meet Him in the place of rest. 

In the beautiful story of Mary and Martha, found in Luke 10, Jesus teaches an invaluable lesson. 

Mary is sat at the feet of Jesus, listening to everything He said. She was with Him. Martha was working hard for the preparations that needed sorting. She was angry that Mary wasn’t helping. She, quite boldly, suggests Jesus shouldn’t be allowing Martha to sit at His feet when there’s work to do! Mary should be helping. What Jesus says challenges our principles and our view of what’s important. 

There’s nothing more needed than to abide with Jesus. Over what you do, no matter how small or great, what’s more valuable, is simply being with Jesus, sitting at His feet, away from distraction. And there’s a joy to be found in Him through rest, that no amount of work will ever bring. There’s a joy to be found in Him through simply sitting at His feet, that no amount of doing can ever create. The more you do this, the more you’ll happily release control to Him, and it’s truly freeing. The more you do this, the more aware of His love, wisdom, grace, mercy, and beauty you’ll experience, and it’s needed for healthy growth. You’ll find joy in rest. 

Joy isn’t happiness, it’s far deeper. Joy is the steadfast assurance that all will be okay, because Jesus has won. Joy looks at the eternal, not the temporal. Joy keeps you going through the hardest of circumstances, where happiness can be gone in a moment. But how can we maintain our joy, based on a steadfast assurance, if we’re always moving and never stopping to remember where and who our assurance comes from? 

If we’re to learn anything from the story of Mary and Martha, it’s that it’s far more important to be still at the feet of Jesus, without distraction, than doing work for Him. David said it beautifully in Psalm 27:4“One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.” When you rest, you have all the freedom “to gaze on the beauty of the LORD” and what could restore more joy than that?! 

Make the commitment to choose rest. Write it down somewhere. Schedule it in. Tell a friend. Choose to enjoy God without distraction in the place of rest.

Scriptures: Mark 2:27, Luke 10:27, John 15:4-8

Rest. How?

Over the past 4 days, we have explored the topic of rest and why we should practice this gift. Today, we’ll cover a few ways of how to rest. 

The greatest commandments are to love God with our entire being, and to love our neighbour as ourselves (Luke 10:27). All these suggestions are with the view of helping us obey God in these two commandments. 

1. Sabbath. We get to take a full 24 hours to rest, recharge, refocus, and be refreshed. What could be better!? Jesus said, “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27). Sabbath was created for your rest. Enjoy God and enjoy His gifts in whatever way is restful and refreshing for you. It might be going for a walk in His creation or sitting to read a good book. God patterned a great way for us to Sabbath. Work for six days and rest for one. 
2. Retreat. Retreat is pulling back. It means to pull away from the busyness of the world for a time, to be with God. Maybe it’s a day, a week, a month. You could book a B&B for a night. Go camping. Ask to stay in a friend’s guest room. Take your Bible, a journal, some music, an instrument. Retreat to simply be with Jesus without distraction. 
3. Switch off. We spoke about becoming aware when we stop and rest. Sometimes it’s easy to stop but distract ourselves with social media, tv series, games, books, music, etc… and this doesn’t help us find true inner rest. So, switch off. Get away from distraction. Maybe you could try 30 minutes a day where you rest and fill your mind with God and His Word. That’s like one short tv episode. You’ve got this! 
4. Cultivate a life of abiding. All of us are at different stages in our lives. Different places in our walks with God. We receive true rest in the presence of Jesus. It’s because of Him we can even find rest. And it’s because of Him that we will enjoy the promise of eternal rest. So do whatever you can to abide in Jesus. Sometimes, we just can’t rest how we’d like to. But we can operate out of an inner contentment that comes from the assurance and peace of Jesus in our lives. Whatever the Spirit is calling you to do, to abide, do it! 

Spend some time with the Holy Spirit, asking Him how He wants you to rest. Work out what this looks like for your life. Nothing is more important than abiding with Jesus. So, prioritise that over everything else. The Creator of the Universe is in a place of rest, so meet Him there.

We hope and pray that this devotional on rest has been a blessing to you and produces fruit in your life.