Rest is good. We are creatures with a desire to rest built into our systems. Sure, many of us choose to ignore this part of our design, and would rather fill the Sabbath times with as many distractions as possible. But sooner or later, running our bodies like this will shut them down. Our very Creator rested, not necessarily because He needed it but as a model for how we should approach living.

He also designed the Sabbath so we can reflect on our limitations, and how it is only through Him we really get anything done.

“Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. ” Ezekiel 20:12

The world and culture in which we as humans are tasked to care for and maintain was specifically created to include Sabbath times. There is darkness, each night, for Sabbath hours. There are weekends, each week, for Sabbath days. There are sunny weeks and months of summer, each year, for Sabbath vacations.

There is retirement, when we get older, for Sabbath seasons.

God wants us to rest. But are we really doing it? When is the last time that your Sabbath rest really accomplished the goal of entering God’s rest?

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.” Hebrews 4:9-11

Granted, the question here is not whether you are strictly observing Saturday or Sunday as your Sabbath day, or summer vacation as your Sabbath time. We have freedom in Christ and there is freedom in when we share that time.

The question is…are you resting at all?

I know that I tend to err on the side of not resting. I try and load in as much stuff as I can, often to the point of failing to meet some of my commitments simply because I have made too many. But our rest is divinely instituted. Who am I to ignore that part of God’s command? When you work and work without resting, it is as if you are telling God that you can handle it on your own. You don’t need His rest.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

I have recently really had this lesson brought down on me the hard way. As a senior in high school, I felt God call me into pastoral ministry. It is a calling I still cling to, and I am, for the first time, feeling Him lead me into ministry rather than simply put the calling in me.

For the past several years, I have been working in my own strength, trying to accomplish as much as possible on my own.

And I realized that I wasn’t doing very much.

I wasn’t doing much because I wasn’t setting aside time to rest. But it is when we rest in our Creator that we are empowered to do the big stuff He wants us to do. It is when we take the time to soak Him in that we are able to pour Him out.

That being said, I am fully planning on resting as much as I can this summer. I have not taken the opportunity to do it since I was a kid, where summers of Sabbath are probably best experienced. But until we realize that we cannot work without rest…

…I wonder if we will ever reach our real calling?

I will be praying that you find time to rest, worship in your rest, and realize the power you have when you aren’t struggling to get work done with just your own puny strength. Don’t ever feel bad for relaxing from your work.

“And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” Mark 6:31

Now I am going to lay on the porch.