Holy Rest

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. Hebrews 4: 9-11

What does it mean to find rest with God? Is Sabbath rest just a Sunday activity? These are the questions I asked myself as I was recovering from a season of burnout. My writing had run out of steam; I wanted to quit my blog and burn my pens and papers. I felt like I was wandering around lost with no place to rest my weary mind. It was quite unsettling.

The Israelites also wandered around in a state of unrest; for 40 years they endured this feeling of unsettlement. God had a place, an earthly place prepared for them to finally experience rest. A place to enter into His rest. As Christians, we aim to stop wandering and come to a place of peace with God. But how can you rest when your heart is troubled? How is peace possible when your mind is unsettled?

Sometimes God asks for us to strive, to put forth enormous effort in pursuing our purpose. For me, this is my blog and my books. Hard work is invigorating, fulfilling, and maybe even addictive. I love the work God has given me. I crave the adrenaline rush of passion and gusto.

But I cannot forget God’s promise of rest. Creating the entire world, speaking into existence land and sky. Forming creatures, millions of them, big and small, from spiders to elephants. What a feat! But after He completed the work, God rested.

The striving, the passion, the gusto, what if all of it was meant for a season? What if we were never intended to keep this pace indefinitely? God has prepared for us a time of rest. A time, after the striving,  for us to enter fully into His presence. In our time of rest, we can silently enter surrender and sit with God. We let God be God. Trusting Him to complete the work He set before us. Finishing what has been His work, His purpose, His passion, all along.

Today God has released me from our time of holy rest. I conclude this time with a new understanding of rest as a place of finishing what God began. A place of complete peace in knowing God is the finisher of all work. I have learned to trust God in this place, and perhaps next time I won’t wander around fighting a season of rest. So today, I begin this new season, anticipating the reward of holy rest after enjoying a vigorous season of doing God’s work, entrusted to me again.

Heavenly Father, I give you all I have and am eager to experience this cycle of faithful work and rest. Thank you for showing me how to find peace in holy rest. I never want to fall short by skipping your finishing work. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Relevant Bible Verses

Genesis 2:1-3–Thus 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.

Psalm 95:7b-11–Today, if only you would hear his voice, “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribat, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

Reflect and Respond

In Genesis 2, it says that God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Why do you think He did that?

What keeps us from God’s blessing of rest? How can you keep your heart from going astray?

Why do you think a time of rest requires you to trust God?

Related Resources

In Priscilla Shirer’s Bible study, Breathe: Making Room for Sabbath, she teaches about our need for tranquility, serenity, and repose. She explores one of God’s greatest gifts, Sabbath rest.

Our worship song this week is The Heart of Worship by Matt Redman. I like the reminder this song brings to my heart that everything we do is all about Jesus. When we bring our hearts back to the heart of worship, we can rest in the peace of the Lord and the goodness He provides.