I love raining Sunday mornings. Especially in the summer when our church doesn’t have Sunday school so I get an extra hour to stay in bed. I can’t sleep late, but just staying in bed to read, reflect and rest. That is what I did today.
Resting is what this day is meant to be. One day a week set aside as different from the other days. A day I look forward to worshipping our Lord and His Word speaking truth back in to my heart after whatever has come at me all week long. A day I look forward to sitting in my chair in the afternoon without feeling guilty that there are things to do.
Resting is what the summer is meant to be. One season with a different, slower schedule than all other times of the year. A season I look forward to a break from the chaotic carpooling and activities. A season with more time to enjoy my family. To sit at the pool. To catch up with friends I don’t typically bump in to during the school year.
- Why then do we fill our Sundays and summers and not take the rest we need?
- Why do we overschedule ourselves and our kids?
- Why do we prioritize everything other than worship and therefore miss true Rest?
Our understanding and experiencing of True Rest is foundational to each of these questions.
In my personal study of the book of Hebrews (as you may notice popping up quite a bit in my blogging since that is driving my thoughts) it was Hebrews 4:10-11 that hit me this week:
“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…”
It seems counterintuitive to strive for rest, especially after the text has just said to rest from works as God did his. So I looked up the original Greek word for “rest” and found it to mean: “dwelling, habitation or repose.”
“Repose” is the state of being at rest, freedom from worry, peace, calmness. Obviously “dwelling” is a place you reside. Coupling these ideas with the word being used in the present tense I discover that rest is found by abiding in Jesus. Now. Ongoing. And active.
If I am not “striving” for rest in Him than I will not be at peace, free from worry or at “home.” I will not rest from my “works.” Works in this context is not busyness, but trying to earn God’s favor by our own goodness or performance. But He completed everything for us when Jesus declared “It is finished” at the cross, descended into Hell and on the third day ascended into Heaven where now He sits at the right-hand of God. At rest.
Jesus is our True Rest. Because He is everything for me that I am not, I can be at peace. I can know that He loves me despite my sin and therefore I have nothing to prove – I can rest.
But, we don’t. We naturally worry. Work to please others. Feel like we have to do what everyone else is doing. Be at all the activities. Can’t say no. Look a certain way. So, we fill our time and become worn down physically, emotionally and spiritually.
In maintaining the full, busy lives we lead, we neglect the one place we can find True Rest – in and through His Word.
Are you resting?
See Sunday as a divine intervention and a necessity for your soul and go worship The King!
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