What is your relationship with rest?

Genesis 2:1–3 ESV

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 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. 3 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.

Rest is more than a time of physical, mental, and emotional rejuvenation. Rest is a spiritual command to connect with and enjoy God. About 40% of Americans are running off of six hours of sleep or less. That number would include me. We are becoming increasingly busy. It’s almost like we go to sleep every night looking for more things to do the next day, and if we don’t do more tomorrow than we did today then we feel like we’ve failed. We just have an issue with the whole concept of rest. Sitting down, slowing down, and putting away our work is an issue. But in order for us to resolve this issue it is going to take more than just research on the statistical data and the side effects of neglecting rest. It is going to require us to change the way we view rest. Naturally, we treat things differently when they have been assigned a higher value. I don’t know what kids and parents do nowadays, but when I was growing up there was a such thing as school clothes and good clothes. We could not play in our good clothes because they costed more and they were set aside for a specific purpose. Things like going to school, church, or to town. We treated our good clothes differently and had a different mindset when it came to what we did and did not do in those good clothes. In order for us to resolve our relationship with rest we need to assign a higher value to the idea. We need to understand that it is a Biblical idea. We need a new relationship with rest. But first we need to understand what it is.

So what is rest?

We need to understand what rest is in a biblical sense and for that we need to use the proper term for the kind of rest the bible prescribes:

SABBATH (שַׁבָּת, shabbath). A day of complete rest from secular work following six days of labor. Established and modeled by God.

Bryan C. Babcock, “Sabbath,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

Resting is more than sleeping, for us it’s higher and holier than that. It is ceasing from our labor. Genesis 2:2 tells us that God finished his work on the 7th day and he ceased from working.

Genesis 2:2 ESV

2 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.

Think about it. God who created everything out of absolutely nothing. The God who is eternal and infinite. The God who never gets weary neither does he sleep or slumber ceased from all of his work. What does this tell us about how we should view rest?

How should we view rest?

1. We should follow God’s example since we are made in his image (Genesis 1:26)

2. It’s okay to put down your work

3. God consecrated a space for us to rest (Genesis 2:3)

Genesis 2:3 ESV

3 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.

What should be my relationship with rest?

We began with the question, “what is my relationship with rest?” But now we should ask the question, “what should be my relationship with rest?” Now that we understand God’s intent for us to cease from our labor I think we should take resting more serious. Here are some practical suggestions:

Observe the sabbath weekly

Carve our space for a prolonged sabbath (Romans 14:5)

Don’t let resting in itself to become a burden (Mark 2:27)

Prayer

Lord help us to mimic you especially in the area of resting so that we can enjoy you. You rested to enjoy creation, so help us rest so that we may enjoy our creator.