Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Finding True Rest
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy. Exodus 20:8-11
In our series on spiritual disciplines this week’s focus is on rest. Rest is something that many of us do not do well. We pack every second of our days with one thing after another, sprinting through the days and not slowing down until we are forced to. Rest – physical, spiritual, and emotional - is important and should be a higher priority to all of us.
God intended for us to rest. He rested on the seventh day after he created the world and everything in it. He didn’t need to rest because he is God, but he set apart that day and made it one of the Ten Commandments - Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work… God gave us this example of resting on the seventh day of creation to establish the practice of the Sabbath day rest for his people.
Rest is about trusting God. It helps us relate to him and to others. Pastor Jim said "True rest is more about the object of Sabbath – God – than anything else." Sabbath is grounded in creator and savior. He created us and he saved us – who could we possibly trust more? We can trust him instead of trying to trust in our own abilities and rationale to solve our problems alone. He wants us to give him our worries and cares and until we do that we cannot rest. As we sprint through our action packed days carrying our heavy burdens we will collapse sooner than later. We were never meant to carry our burdens. The body of Christ can find Sabbath together when they hold each another up. We can remind each other of the faithfulness and goodness of God and encourage one another.
How does rest draw us closer to God and help us grow deeper in our relationship with Him?
Only God can give us the rest we need for our body, mind, and soul. Anywhere we look besides God to find satisfaction or rest will only bring exhaustion because it will never satisfy enough so we will keep running around in circles trying to fill a void that only God can fill. Outside of God we will never find rest. When something or someone else is the target of our desire we will endlessly strive after what will only take from us, leaving us emptier than ever. Not only will be exhausted from striving but we will be empty too. It doesn’t just lead to burn out. It leads to something much deeper. It leads to an extinguished light. When you find Jesus and fully lean into him, trusting him and laying your burdens down at his feet, then you can find true rest.
This week make rest a priority. Press into God for rest and renewal. Plan to take some scheduled time out from responsibilities to engage in what brings you rest. It could be spending time with family or going for a walk. It could be dinner with friends or getting an extra hour of sleep one morning. As you take time out
