This week, Pastor Jonny concluded the Simple Living series, looking at rest.
As a country and individually, we’re going through a tough season in the midst of a pandemic. The pain we’re experiencing is worse for some than for others, with the loss of businesses and investments, while others have found a newfound time for rest from the hectic pattern of pre-pandemic life.
Regardless of our current circumstances, the Government restrictions are set to be eased for a week in December, meaning we have the excitement of Christmas ahead of us where we can rest with our families.
28“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
(Matthew 11:28-30)
In this passage, Jesus speaks to His disciples who want to learn more about walking in His ways. Many of them were burnt out from trying to keep all the excessive religious rules that the Pharisees were imposing on society, adding extra laws on top of those found in the Bible.
There are 3 key reasons why we need to rest:
Rest because we are told to
We know that God designed His law in love for the benefit of people. When people follow God’s law, humans (and by extension, humanity) flourish. We know that God’s command to rest is good for us.
8“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
(Exodus 20:8-11)
Out of the Ten Commandments, eight of them are “you shall not” commandments, and two of them are “you shall remember” commandments. We should try and remember that God has created the Sabbath as a time of rest and replenishment for us, and that it’s been designed in love.
The UK in the 21st century, seems to value living life at an ultra-productive fast pace, yet we have mental health issues and relationship breakdown like never before. While God does indeed call us to be wise with our time, we need to find a healthy balance, and the concept of the sabbath gives us a day each week to shut off, relax, and be with the Lord, our families and friends, without the pressure to have to be “doing” something.
Rest because we need to
If we don’t catch up with rest, our overworking will catch up with us. We will experience burnout, mental health issues and problems in our relationships.
Trying to take a day off every few weeks or a week off every few months won’t cut it. Something needs to change day-to-day, week-to-week for us. We need regular, intentional rest in God. Even better, building in some time to “rest with God” each day, some quiet time in the Word and prayer, is the best way to set us right for the day.
Interestingly, before Thomas Eddison invented the lightbulb, people got 11 hours sleep on average as they had to live with limited light. When we hear about theological heroes like John Wesley getting up at 4am, it’s probably because he went to bed at 7pm!
Jesus said “my yoke is easy and my burden is light”. There are a couple of different ways of looking at this verse. Firstly, the yoke was a piece of wood binding oxen together, enabling them to share the load of whatever they were carrying. When we are bound to Jesus, He does the heavy lifting for us in life, by His grace.
Interestingly, a yoke was also a rabbi’s teaching from Scripture. Jesus is claiming that His interpretation of Scripture is the best; it lifts people up with grace, whereas other rabbis used Scripture to pile works-based living on people, wearing people down with heavy burdens.
As Christians, we are called to work hard and be intentional with our time, so we should also be intentional about building in time to rest.
Rest because we should want to
We should desire “the Jesus life”, the life devoted to Christ. To achieve this, we need to adopt "the Jesus lifestyle". Jesus loved God, put others first, worked hard in His calling, studied Scripture, and spent time in prayer. Then in addition to that, He rested and retreated to places of solitude, and also napped a lot too!
We cannot live well in our own strength, we can only live well in Jesus. By resting, we are handing over our ability to achieve to God. This week, we need to ask God to do what only He can do because we can’t strive anymore.
This week, let’s be intentional about God’s calling to more rest, and let’s discover the importance of resting in God, with more time with the Lord in prayer and in Scripture.