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Meditation 4

He Did, You Should

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

—Genesis 2:1–3

When do you rest?

Henry David Thoreau penned these stark words about work without rest, “The laboring man hasn’t leisure for true integrity daily. No time for anything but to be a machine.” Wow . . . a machine. Tough words, but true to the bone.

When God finished the work of creation, we are told “he rested.” We live in a world that prizes hard work—no quarrel with that, but we also live in a world where authentic rest is sometimes seen as laziness. There is, of course, such a thing as laziness and the Bible was not too keen on that vice.³ But rest from hard labor is something God did; and it was so important that we followed that lead. Rest was woven into the Ten Commandments, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work . . .” (Exodus 20:9–10).

Without physical rest, the body literally begins to break down; health gives way to exhaustion and illness. But without spiritual rest, time set aside for God, our soul begins to give way to spiritual sickness. Rest is an absolute necessity in one’s spiritual health. God rested, and if the Creator of the universe did it, so should we.

The question for your consideration today is, “When do you rest?”⁴ I know some people who go on vacation and then, well, do not really rest. They carry along all the electronic gadgets that keep them distracted from everything and everyone around them. I also know people who habitually use their off-day simply to catch up on household chores. No doubt some of these are necessary realities in the workaday world, but they should not be at the expense of resting.

A life without rest tends to conceal what is really going on—a discomfort with silence and solitude, reinforcing an illusion that we are the masters of our own souls. On the other hand, voluntary rest can restore our confidence in God by reconnecting us to him. Richard Foster reminds us, “If we are silent, who will take control? God will take control.”⁵ That is not a bad thing, is it?

Are you following God’s lead? Are you obeying God’s command?

A Bit of Heaven

Not all of us are blessed to able to rest a full day in seven; and some of us work much more than a typical eight-hour day, but that does not negate God’s model, nor his command. When do you rest?

A Prayer

My spirit longs for Thee

Within my troubled breast,

Though I unworthy be

Of so divine a guest.

Of so divine a guest

Unworthy though I be,

Yet has my heart no rest

Unless it come from Thee.

Amen.

—John Byrom, d. 1763

3 See, for instance, Proverbs 10:4, 12:27; Ecclesiastes 10:18; Titus 1:12; Hebrews 6:12.

4 Not “How do you rest?” We will get to that too!

5 Foster, Celebration of Discipline, 101.