All about resting in Him
Desire:
to honor God and my human limitations
through restful rhythms
Definition:
Entering into rest depends on honoring our God-given limits. By paying attention to the physical, mental and spiritual needs of the body, we learn when and how to rest.
Passage:
"Let the beloved of the LORD
rest secure in him,
for he shields him all day long,
and the one the LORD loves
rests between his shoulders.”
-Deuteronomy 33:12
Lack of rest or burning out both ends of the candle, spiritually and physically, can lead one to:
1. lose sight of what we enjoy in our work
2. find even the things we enjoy doing become a chore
3. fail to give people the gift of our attention and presence
4. impair our ability to hear God’s voice and discern his movement in our lives
5. become obsessive about the to-do list
6. lose touch with the human limits that are meant to keep us in touch with God
Practice:
1. setting aside unhurried time to rest and be refreshed rather than work
2. Invite God in some Restful activities: cat nap, curling up on the couch to listen to music, taking a casual walk outside, having coffee or ice cream with a friend.
Fruit:
1. Keep company with Jesus and who He is, and avoid being a "busybody"
2. honoring the way God created you by living a healthy and intentionally rested life
3. Restore truth during Rest: freedom from the compulsion to take your identity from what you do
4. take time to delight in God, family, the seasons, meals and all good gifts of creation*
*from the "spiritual disciplines handbook" by Adele Calhoun, pg 63-65)
From a biblical perspective, I found that as I sought God's Word to more fully unwrap what rest really does for us, I found the following definitions shown to me through different passages.
Rest is presenting yourself to God.
Rest is "here I am God, above the noise and the demands of people and the expectations I have put on myself to be this or be that, casting all of that aside, here I am, I lay upon the alter in surrender, nothing to lose, and everything to gain. I rest.
“Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”
Romans 12:1-2
Rest is easy.
Rest is going to Big Father, King Daddy, who is in charge of all, to securely nuzzle in between His shoulders as a beloved who belongs with Him where nothing can touch you.
"Let the beloved of the LORD
rest secure in him,
for he shields him all day long,
and the one the LORD loves
rests between his shoulders.”
-Deuteronomy 33:12
Rest is giving over your work or letting go completely.
You take a moment to hand over control to God while you just let go.
My cross country drive to Nashville with my friend took 29 hours, but we took turns driving and resting. It's not that we weren't getting anywhere when we did that, even though one of us was resting, it was that the other person took the wheel and kept us going, not only kept us going but gave the other time to refuel and restore the energy needed to continue the rest of the way.
When we rest fully in God, it's about the work still getting done, but now you're taking a freebie moment while God shifts into gear. Now, the reality is that God is always working for your good (never shifting "out of gears") and eventually we will see that even while working we are actually resting! So that work becomes rest! Later I'll unpack more on that.
For now, we must first learn and experientially grasp what rest truly looks and feels like for us as individuals. We invite God to teach us how to rest by bringing Him into our discipline of intentionally taking rest as a way of remembering who is in control.
Rest is a need.
"My soul finds rest in God alone.”
-Psalm 62:1
Rest is needing God to take care of you.
Needing a break.
A pause.
A moment to catch your breath and just be still.
The pressures off when you are resting in Him.
Rest is genuine.
“Love must be without hypocrisy."
Romans 12:9
In God, there is no hypocrisy or fake pretense. There is just fully known, fully accepted rest that you take.. As you practice this discipline of resting, remember to watch out for traces of hypocrisy that might try and steal from your time in His love. There is no fear in love, because perfect love casts that all out. Where there is no fear in love, there is real rest.
“For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.”
Philippians 2:13
Rest is holy.
“By the seventh day
God completed His work that He had done,
and He rested
on the seventh day from all His work
that He had done.
God blessed the seventh day and
declared it holy, for on it He rested
from His work of creation.”
Genesis 2:2-3
Rest and work go together.
"Work! For I am with you” — the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.
“This is the promise I made to you when you came out of Egypt, and My Spirit is present among you; don’t be afraid.”
For the Lord of Hosts says this:
“Once more, in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord of Hosts.
"The silver and gold belong to Me” — this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.
"The final glory of this house will be greater than the first,” says the Lord of Hosts.
"I will provide peace in this place” — this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.”
Haggai 2:3-9
Rest is remembering God.
“Be at rest once more,
O my soul,
for the LORD has been good to you.”
-Psalm 116:7
Rest is threatened:
“The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on?
Suppose you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God.’ Isn’t He the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You are to worship at this altar’?
But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine? ” Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: “Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot deliver you. Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will certainly deliver us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’ ” Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own land — a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the power of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my power? Who among all the gods of these lands ever delivered his land from my power? So will the Lord deliver Jerusalem.””
Isaiah 36:4, 7, 12-20
Rest is assurance.
“When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
you will lie down, and your sleep will be pleasant.
for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from a snare.”
Proverbs 3:24, 26
True rest brings you to sleep soundly because you're nestled in the arms of a loving and all-powerful Father who neither sleeps nor forgets what is perfectly good in everything He does.
Rest is sinless and therefore guilt free.
Rest is done without guilt or a feeling of laziness. When you find rest in God there is no sin found in you, because if you are resting with God then by definition no sin is able to be in His presence. You are given free access to sinlessness!
"My yoke is easy and my burden is light"
-Matthew 11:30
There are two type of evils or burdens: one is internal and the other is external. To be the one doing evil is an inner type, and the to be the one who has evil done to them is the external type. Both are a burden but which is the weightier evil?
Which is worse:
Two friends are captured in battle, the torturer tells one man to either beat and kill his friend by a method of excruciating slow torture and agony, his own buddy in combat, his brotherhood, or be killed in that way himself by the executioner.
We would probably all unanimously agree that for him to choose to kill his brother is the greater evil than for him to decide to take on the punishment himself.
Rest is guilt free for us in this manner when we consider what Christ did for us, in that He took our sins upon Himself, took our punishment upon Himself so that we would be set free, free to rest assured that our sins are no more. Therefore, where there are no sins, there is no guilt or condemnation.
(Since I prepared this for my high school students, here are some of the questions you could also share with a small group)
Discussion:
1. Explain to the group your preference as to what you, as an individual, would consider a day of rest.
2. Have you ever thought about inviting God into your times of resting?
3. Which aspect of rest most resonated with you? (Rest is...) what might God be speaking to you through resting?
Jmegrey
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