Rest Is Not A Four-letter Word

Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:6

JOHN HUNG UP THE PHONE and slumped back in his office chair. His wife, Claire, had just updated him on her day at the beach with their two children. She was about to send over a video of the sand castle they had built earlier in the day. Although he would be joining Claire and the kids for the weekend, John began to second-guess his decision to stay at work so that he could get ahead on a few projects. “I’m working around the clock to provide for my family,” he mumbled to himself, “but I can’t seem to stop long enough to actually enjoy my family.”

Many of us can relate to John’s frustration. The demands of life and the pressure and stress that go along with those demands can be overwhelming. Constantly striving to get ahead or sometimes just survive, we are faced with a seemingly endless stream of deadlines, meetings, and paperwork. In order to have more time, we get up early and stay up late, and inevitably our rest begins to suffer.

But we were not designed for this frantic pace. If our Creator rested, how much more do we as His creation need to rest? Taking time to rest teaches us an essential truth: God is God, and we are His finite, dependent creation. God never asked us to meet life’s pressures and demands on our own or by relying on our own strength. God invites us to enter His rest. Have you neglected your rest lately?

BOTTOM LINE

It is a good thing to be a creature with needs, and one of those needs is rest. Learning to rest is a matter of faith and faithfulness.

Moment of Strength: Matthew 11:28