God really likes rest. How do I know? Because He role modeled it at creation. He didn’t need to rest, He chose to rest on the 7th day. Why? Because of 2 primary reasons in my opinion: 1.) He, like a good father demonstrated what He wanted His kids to do knowing that they would tend to follow His lead. Think about how parents teach their kids to be potty-trained, some will get on a toilet to demonstrate, even if they don’t have to go. In the same way, God didn’t have to rest, but He did so to mimic what health looked like for a human being. 2.) It wasn’t primarily rest for the Lord but a time of reflection. God doesn’t just want to create and work, and work, and work without sitting back and reflecting on His glory and a job well done. He was going to grab an iced tea and sit back and smile at what He had done. Is this a role-modeling for us as well? Of course it is, otherwise it wouldn’t have been recorded in the Bible the way that it was.
Rest is powerful for our spiritual health and growth. Unfortunately, I’m not one to talk. I’m terrible at it. By nature I’m a workaholic when it comes to ministry. The only reason I have any semblance of order, breaks or health at all in my life (or am still in ministry and not burnt out), is due to my wife and the schedule she helped me implement. So, I’m not preaching to any one more than myself. I’ve seen the power of rest expressed in two ways: 1.) Body Design, 2.) Power Over Sin.
I went to a Leadership Conference some years ago and a sharp teacher came to the stage and introduced himself as being from a firm in Florida who works with high-end athletes (Olympians and professionals). His job is to make them operate at their maximum. He explained that everything in our bodies is designed around a stress and rest concept. Our heart rates spike and then rest, spike and then rest. Our muscle EMG does the same thing. We are built to stress and rest. The stress isn’t the main problem, it’s the lack of rest that’s the problem. He went on to explain what I had known from the gym, which was that growth only occurs in the rest portion, not in the stress portion. When you lift weights you are tearing down, when you rest you are repairing and building. That’s how it works. All stress and no rest will kill you just like all rest and no stress means you’re dead (flatlining). Ironically enough, I heard a teacher recently on the radio say that the first thing that God did when he created mankind was to put him to work. Immediately. You would think that something else would have been on the agenda, but nope, God put him to work. Why? Because God loves work too(Jesus said that His Father has been at work since the beginning and He was too). God also knows that He built into us the desire to work and create and we find satisfaction in that when it’s done right in the Lord. But God also built in the need for rest.
Do you know the four triggers for Alcoholism? H.A.L.T. Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. I would suggest that in my life those same triggers are for sin as well. I am most tempted to sin when I’m exhausted. I’m most tempted to sin after I have expended everything for the kingdom and feel that it’s now ‘me time’, to recoup. I’ve done a ton for the Lord, now I deserve to have a little something for myself. Do you see the temptation and err of that? But it’s true, at least in my life. When I’m wiped out I don’t have the strength to resist. I don’t have the will power to say no. When I’m tired I want the easy way out, I want the junk food, I want the pacifier. Sin sidles up to all those things. When we are refreshed we have a bounce to our step, we can dodge and weave. When we are refreshed and rested we can punch back and rapidly recall Scripture to mind. When we are at full strength we can say, ‘no’ and mean it. When I’m tired any resistance is weak.
I think that for too many of us in the ministry, or even just as believers, still believe that work is more God-honoring than rest. How about now? You still feel that way? Or are we starting to balance it out and realize that one feeds the other. If we worked all the time and never rested or reflected, when would we glorify God? If we never stopped to notice, how can we praise Him? If we are designed to glorify God and worship Him, how can rest be a side-note? I think that God loves rest. I think that God demands rest. And I think a lack of rest is a sin, so take that to your quiet time. J
