The Gift of Rest

We all experience he feeling of being overwhelmed, whether it's mentally or physically. When we reach that point, it is a signal that something is not right. God is not the author of being overwhelmed. In fact, He is the author of rest and He established the concept of rest in ‭Genesis 2:1-3,

"The heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 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."

Later, God included it in the 10 commandments as we read in Exodus 20:8-10,

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work."

Stopping our work and daily pursuits must be important since even our great Creator, himself, rested. Then He appointed the seventh day as a day of rest for the Israelites. He commanded that they set aside that day to rest from their labor.

Our God knows the tendency of his children to be consumed with the cares and responsibilities of this world. And He knows that without rest, those cares and responsibilities will wear us out, not only physically and mentally, but spiritually as it chokes out the word. Jesus teaches this in ‭Mark 4:19 as he shares the parable of the sower:

"the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful."

So to protect us from our human tendencies, God gave us the gift of rest. Jesus tells us in ‭Mark 2:27,

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."

Jesus is explaining here that the Sabbath day of rest was made as a gift to serve mankind... and man was not made to serve the Sabbath with the imposed regulations put forth by the Pharisees.

God gave mankind the Sabbath to pause from daily life and to use that day as an opportunity to focus on our relationship with Him and nurture our spiritual growth without distraction.

We read in ‭Isaiah 58:13-14,

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord."

The Sabbath day of rest is not to be a burden. It is to bring us joy and not just any ordinary joy, but refreshing joy in the Lord. It is a day to rejuvenate ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually so we can live more effective lives and be more effective vessels of Christ.

Since God established the seventh day as the Sabbath day of rest, are we required to rest on the seventh day? Are we breaking God's command if we don't? We read in ‭Colossians 2:16-17,

"Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."

In Christ, we have the ultimate rest. We rest in his resurrection, we rest in his triumph over death, we rest in his victory over darkness and sin for all mankind. So does that nullify the Sabbath day of rest? No, Christ only nullified the REQUIREMENT of the Sabbath, but he did not nullify the GIFT of the Sabbath. He did not nullify the benefits of the Sabbath, which is primarily rest as the word Sabbath in Hebrew means "he rested". And as we have read, that rest offers refreshment and joy in the Lord.

How do we include day of rest in our routine?

First, we need to designate a specific day of the week on which we can fully dedicate to rest from our labors, chores, and errands. It might be Saturday or Sunday or mid-week on a Tuesday. It might be a day selected every 10 days because we work a 10-day shift. Whichever day it is, we need to commit to it in order to enjoy the benefits of this gift from God. We read in Romans 14:5-6,

"One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord."

This brings us to the second point, that we honor the Lord on our day of rest. Even though we strive to honor God everyday, we can go deeper on our Sabbath rest day. We can delve deeper into scripture, we can get outside and enjoy the beauty of His creation, we can slow down and give Him thanks for all He has provided, sing worship songs, watch a sermon online, we can spend quality time with our loved ones away from TV screens and phones, we can plant new flowers, we can take the dog for a walk, go swimming. We can do anything that we don't have time to enjoy the blessings of or to rest in during the other days of the week. Whatever we do, it should honor the Lord by keeping the 2 greatest commandments: to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor as ourself.

The final suggestion on how to include a day of rest in our routine is to prepare for it by completing our tasks, chores, errands and work the day before. We should attempt to button everything up the day before with very few loose ends so we can fully rest and let go of the responsibilities of life on our designated Sabbath day.

The day of rest began with our Creator. He was the first to rest and established it as an example to us from the very beginning. Since He paused to rest for a day, how much more do we, as human beings, also need that day of rest included in our lives? The Sabbath day of rest is a gift from God. Let us open up that gift weekly and soak in the joy, peace and hope of our Lord as we await the great Sabbath rest of the Kingdom.