Do we really need to fill our rest full of “holy” activities for it to be meaningful to the Lord? Is a good holiday the one that leaves us practically burnt out after serving the Lord so hard? Is a good Sunday necessarily the most active Sunday? I see no evidence for this in the Bible. I understand rest to be just that—the cessation of work in order to recover strength and achieve refreshment. This can take different forms for different people, of course, so we have a great deal of freedom to rest in the ways that best suit our personalities and circumstances. One person’s path to rest may be another person’s path to burnout.

When I read the opening chapters of the Bible, a simple fact always stands out to me: God rested. After a week of work—a workweek in which he created this world and all that is in it—he rested. It’s not that he was tired and needed to put his feet up or that he was worn out and needed to recharge his creative energy. It’s that he wanted to weave a pattern into the very fabric of this world. He wanted to establish a rhythm of labor that gives way to rest. And if the uncreated and untiring God follows work with rest, then surely created and feeble beings like us need to do the same.

When it came time for God to give his people his commandments, he established this pattern even more explicitly, binding his people to it by law. “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…” Of course, many Christians believe that our relationship to the Law has changed following Christ’s death and resurrection, but on this we agree: God gives us rest for spiritual purposes, to teach us to be dependent upon him, to teach us that we can ultimately only ever rest in him, and to teach us that beyond this world there is a place of eternal rest from sin. He teaches us that our rest is not ultimately a day, but a person, not ultimately an occasion, but a Savior.

But God also gives us rest for practical, physical purposes. He gives us rest because we are weak. He gives us rest because we are finite. He gives us rest because we need it and simply cannot thrive without it. We can do more good, bring more blessing, and better serve his cause if we rest. He gives us rest because he loves us, because he cares for us, and because he wants what is best for us.

Read More