Rest in God

Devotional

One of the simple, core values of restored relationship with our heavenly Father is rest. From the beginning God exemplified its importance. Genesis 2:3 says, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” And Hebrews 4:9-13 says,

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. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

I fear that we as children of God have allowed the busyness and stress of the world to influence us in greater ways than the “living and active” word of our heavenly Father. We are designed for rest. We are designed to have a full day and various times throughout each day set aside to simply enjoy God and the blessed life he has given us. When we value success and busyness over relationship with God and obedience to his commands, our priorities begin to fall out of place. When we choose busyness over rest, we place more value on whatever we are working toward than on our restored relationship with God and the abundant life he died to give us.

We are created to work. Prior to sin entering the story of humanity, Adam and Eve labored for God. Work is not a symptom of the fall but rather an incredible joy and privilege given to us by the hand of our Father. But our society promotes a lie that resting is directly related to laziness or selfishness and working is always good. Too much work takes us outside of the grace and provision of God for our work and forces us to labor in our own strength. God has perfect plans and grace for everything he has laid before you, but it is often in rest that you will be refueled and made ready to receive that grace to accomplish your tasks. It’s in rest that our souls are restored, replenished, and filled. And it’s in rest that we are able to take time to be thankful and celebrate what God has helped us accomplish, rather than always bearing the burden of the never-ending list of tasks before us.

May we be children who choose to live by the word and systems of God rather than the values and structures of the world. May we be children who live with the simple, core value of rest as we follow the model of our heavenly Father.