When I’m working on a list of things to do, I usually don’t put rest on the list. You probably don’t either. Most of us think about rest when we’re already exhausted, or when we’ve finished everything else that we think is important.
However, rest is important. God told His people that they should have a full day of rest every seven days. Rest honors Him. It demonstrates our dependence on Him, just like busyness demonstrates our independence from Him. If you were to ask a group of people what they needed to do to grow in their relationship with the Lord, most people would give you a list with at least some of the following on the list:
- Pray regularly
- Read the Bible
- Get involved at church
- Connect with other believers
- Serve others
- Give generously
- Invite people to a relationship with God
My guess is that less than 1 out of 100 people would have the word “rest” on their list. But if you go and go and go all the time and you are not intentional about rest, you are missing out on a critical component of growing in your relationship with the Lord.
I am convinced that we need some time of rest each day and each week to reconnect with the Lord, and if you are involved in leading a ministry of some kind, you need an extended period of rest on occasion. It’s not just a good idea, it’s necessary. How much rest you need, and how long the rest needs to depend on your situation, and your own rhythm of life, but if you are not intentional about rest, you are missing out on the growth that God has for you.
When you begin to put rest into the regular rhythm of your life, you begin to grow in your relationship with the Lord in at least three ways.
Rest has many definitions. One of those definitions is “free of anxiety”. I like to define rest as “the act of ceasing to strive”. We live in a performance driven, competitive culture. Even pastors put pressure on themselves to run faster, think smarter, outperform, and work harder than anyone else. Sometimes pastors become so pragmatic in growing an organization that they forget they are spiritual leaders charged with encouraging people to grow in their relationship with God.
What are you doing in the name of ministry that is prohibiting you from rest? Maybe your schedule is so crammed that you have a hard time going to sleep or staying asleep because you are worried about all the tasks that need to be accomplished this week. Maybe you’ve figured out how to eat lunch in less than 10 minutes so that you’ll be more productive, or maybe you don’t eat lunch at all. Maybe you listen to an audio bible in the car as you’re driving to work so that you’ll have time to do desk work when you get to the office, and the Word of God never seeps into you as it should. You need to rest.
Ask yourself these questions. Really.
- What are you doing to make other people think you’re a hard worker?
- Who are you performing for? Why are you performing for them?
- How important is it to you to be busy?
Busyness destroys intimacy. Busyness destroys our personal relationships, our family relationships, and especially our relationship with God. Rest restores those relationships.
When you learn to rest, you begin to learn what it means to “rest in God”. You begin to remember that God is in control. He’s got this. Everything does not depend on your efforts and energy. He’s the one that spoke the universe into existence and holds it together. Not you.
Daily resting in God will change your perspective on life. Let Him be in charge, because He’s really good at it, and it turns out that His plans are better than our plans. Every. Single. Time.
As you begin to genuinely rest in God, you’ll find something else happening that you weren’t expecting. Your trust in God will begin to grow and mature.
Trusting God is one of the first principles we talk about with new believers. We say things like “now that you’re a Christ-follower, you can trust God.” It seems elementary really. We usually don’t think of trusting God as something that marks a maturing relationship with Him.
Why is learning to trust God such a big deal?
Oftentimes, because of insecurities and LACK of trust in God, we stop really trusting Him. We stop trusting Him and we start asking Him for clarity. “God, I trust you, but could you tell what you’re thinking?” We ask for the details of what we believe He’s calling us to do, and we ask for details about the future. We start trying to determine what is God’s will and stop trusting Him. We quit following Him and start asking for directions. This is the way we live, striving and trying to figure out the future. We tend to be restless people instead of resting people when we don’t trust God.
When we’re not trusting God we ask a lot of “why” questions, “how” questions, and “what” questions, when we should be asking “who” questions. For example, Who do I trust is a much better question than how will this work out or what should I do next or why is this happening?
Who do you trust is foundational for your relationship with the Lord and until you begin to rest in the Lord, you’ll never know the depth and significance of walking in a trusting relationship with Him. Too many times we trust Him with our salvation, but not with anything else. When you ask yourself who do you trust, be sure and answer honestly. You may find that you trust yourself more than you trust God. The best answer to the question “Who do I trust” is simple. God.
Once you learn to begin to regularly incorporate rest into your life, and you begin to see your trust in God grow because you’re resting in Him, you’ll grow in humility. A good friend of mine says you can never have too much humility, and I think he’s right.
You understand that even when you’re resting, the world keeps spinning. You see yourself as less important. It turns out that everything doesn’t depend on you. God really is sovereign, and He’s not in a panic that you’re resting in Him and letting Him run your universe. You can trust Him with everything. Instead of thinking look what I can do, you start thinking look what I can’t do.
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.
God gives grace to those who are humble and resists those who are proud. Humility is not something to avoid, but an area in which to grow. Because you begin to get a better perspective of who God is, your worship deepens, your heart softens, and your relationship with Him gets better than you ever imagined.