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Topic: Rest (06/14/04)
TITLE: Remember Rest By Clay Drysdale 06/20/04 |
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On a physical level, God commands us to work and rest both. He rested on the seventh day, after six days of creating the world (what a work week that was!), and He commands us to do the same. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work" (Ex. 20:9-10 NIV). Just as we should model our prayer life after the Lord's Prayer, the work week God laid out for us in Genesis is meant as a model for our work life.
Obviously, many people don't fall into the six days on, one day off pattern outlined above. However, the point is that God calls us to spend more of our time in production than rest, and to honor Him in our rest. Most of each week is meant for labor of some kind, either on a job or at home (housework, yardwork, etc.).
Along the way, we remember to keep the proper balance between work and rest. God tells us, "He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son" (Prov. 10:5 NIV). We must work when duty calls, but when our work is completed, our bodies must rest. One the other hand, if we rest too much without working, our quality of life will suffer, either financially, physically, spiritually, or all three.
God knows that we need spiritual rest, as well as physical. As children of His, we need times of spiritual refreshment to be effective for Him. Just as a car cannot run continuously without changing the oil and performing other critical maintenance, neither can we, as Jesus' disciples, keep working for Him without spending daily quiet time in prayer and Bible study. The late Bill Bright referred to this as "keeping our axe sharp" to do God's work.
To help us in this task, Jesus promises us, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matt. 11:28-29 NIV). Taking regular spiritual rest in Him will help us do our best for Him.
Rest has a bigger, deeper meaning for Christians that we musn't miss, however. Beyond the daily physical and spiritual rest essential to us, as believers in Christ we rest once and for all in our Savior. A large number of the Israelites in the Old Testament did not enter God's rest in Canaan because of disobedience. They chose not to believe the positive scouting report from Joshua and Caleb, but instead grumbled and wished they were back in Egypt. God struck down those 20 years and older and left the younger generation to enter into the promised land.
The important key to remember is that in Jesus, we have complete rest when we fully trust Him and believe in Him. Hebrews 4:3,10-11 (NIV) tells us, "Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said...[F]or anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their [the Israelites'] example of disobedience."
We don't have to worry about crossing the desert to find rest in the promised land. We've already found it in Jesus! By believing in Him we have entered into God's best possible rest while here on earth. Only Heaven will be better.