Is God Asking You To Rest?

Photo credit: aNto on flickr.com Creative Commons 2.0

As regular readers may be aware, I am a part-time primary school teacher as well as a worship leader & songwriter.

While teaching my 9 – 10 year olds this week, something struck me.

Our science topic is looking at healthy lifestyles and one of the units focuses on the importance of rest, relaxation and recreation. Then this was echoed in religious education where we learned about the Jewish festival of Shabbat (the Sabbath):

“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.” (Genesis 2:2-3 NIV)

Now I like to rest, but there are seasons in my life when rest and taking time out of work or ministry becomes a luxury! I am also quite a driven person, and come to think of it, most leaders I know also exhibit this trait. We work hard to get the job done, to get the gospel into our community, to show the love of Jesus to the world. We do, and do and do and do some more!

The work itself is not bad. Indeed Jesus has commanded us to share his love and reach people with His gospel. But we do need to be good stewards of our time. Could miss-using our time be sinful? Could not building in a suitable time for rest, for Sabbath be bad? - Quite possibly.

This inability to rest can manifest in destructive ways – how many Christian leaders have you heard about who have burnt out? How about that church volunteer who turned up for everything and now no longer attends?

I can be particularly bad at not resting; not carving out space for time with God in my routine; not taking the time to be present with my family.

Being present, not just being in the room. This means an intentional involvement in what is happening rather than being physically present, but plugged into my tablet computer or mobile phone.

This also includes just resting – doing nothing! I find I can’t sit still for long before a new idea pops into my head and I can’t wait to get started on that new project, or make that update to that website etc.

It is good to rest. I would even go so far as to say it is ‘God’ to rest! To be still and know that He-Is- God!

God tells us to unplug.
God tells us to relax.
God tells us to take a break, go on that holiday.
God tells us to be present with those we love.

So simply stop – pause – cease!

Is God asking you to have a rest?