Resting From Your Labors

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (Genesis 2:1-3 ESV).

Today, I will be “preaching” more to myself than anyone else, I’m sure! Last month I went to Texas to perform a wedding. Since I went alone, I had a lot of “down time.” I can tell you that it felt very strange to be completely without schedule and responsibilities for nearly three days! It was a luxury I have not had in a while. Even while on vacation, there are often schedules to keep and things to do. However, waiting for the time of the wedding, I really rested! I almost felt a little guilty! So often in our busy culture, we feel that resting is a waste of time. Our modern mindset is that rest is for when we’re weary or sick or have time to rest.

God didn’t make our world this way. God rested on the seventh day. He called it Sabbath. He built that rhythm into our world. God didn’t rest because He was tired. He rested to give us an example. We needed to know that God made rest a priority. Let me make some observations about the importance of rest.

 First, it is a way to acknowledge the uniqueness of the nature of God in our lives. We need to acknowledge that God is God and we are not. It’s a way of saying that we cannot do everything needed and so we rest, trusting that God is at work doing only what he can do in our lives.

 Second, we need rest to restore and renew our physical, emotional, and spiritual lives. It is a simple fact, though often ignored, that our bodies need rest to function properly. Our minds need rest to operate at peak efficiency. Maybe most importantly, our spirits need to rest in the presence of God.

 Third, we need to rest to allow those around us to rest. When God called on Israel to keep his Sabbath, he reminded them that they were to let all their livestock and all their servants and workers, Israelite or not, rest as well. In other words, God’s rest was not a time for his people to take off from work so others could work for them, but a time for them to rest and let those around them to share in this blessing from God.

This is certainly not an excuse to be lazy. The Bible speaks very clearly about that as well. However, we do need to hear God calling us to a time of rest so we can receive his blessing, so others can share in that blessing, and so we can learn to trust God to work on things that we cannot do. At least in my busy world, with all its demands, I need to do a better job of resting! Perhaps you do too. God wants to meet us, bless us, restore us, and bless others through us in our times of rest!