Pursuing God's Restနမူနာ

Rest Requires Faith

Now that sounds very strange; rest requires faith! I would think to lie down and watch a movie or just relaxing requires nothing. But when you look around you there seems to be a race against time, people including myself are scurrying around trying to meet deadlines and trying to put in thirty hours of working into a ten hour or longer day. 

The mind of man is set on achieving more, being on the cutting edge of their field, and the quest to bring out the next new thing. It is incredible how we get so tired and bored with our creations so quickly, and that invokes the cycle of getting something new every week, season, or year, yet the creation of God is still sustained and enjoyed six thousand years later. Now I am not against staying on the cutting edge of our fields, or creating and discovering new treatments, technology, systems and strategies to make life easier and better; but when these things take precedence over time spent with our Creator, families, and friends and church we are bordering on a breakdown sooner or later.

I've looked at the Jewish people for years as I live near a Jewish neighborhood and I am stunned at the ridiculous visible blessings upon their lives even though they have been such a persecuted people. Everything they seem to put their hands to become blessed and prosper, and yet they close their businesses on what we would consider the busiest shopping day of the week which is Saturday. They shut down everything, and they observe the Sabbath, a Holy day of rest unto the Lord. They walk to the synagogues with their families, and they focus that day on their God, doing no work. Won't you say this takes real faith to enjoy the busiest business day off from work and rest in the Lord? It sure does. 

While we are not under the old covenant law but the new covenant grace, we miss the point that God instituted rest from the very creation of the earth. While we may not observe the Saturday Sabbath like the Jews, the principle of rest remains an essential aspect of life for all peoples. We may go to church on Sundays, but still we leave our businesses open, and we compromise our rest in the Lord by trying to do more hoping that someday we won't have to work so hard, but that is a lie from the devil because the more we work now, the less time we have left with to enjoy life. 

The children of Israel had to learn how important the Sabbath was the tough way. They refused to rest the land every seven years as God had commanded them. For four hundred and ninety years they ignored God and never let their animals and land rest and as a result for all the Sabbaths missed they spent a year in bondage, they were carried away into captivity having to leave their land so it could rest as God commanded. Seventy years was spent in captivity due to their disobedience.

Well, you might argue today we are not under that law, but the fact remains that God designed us for rest and if we don't make the time to rest in him, drinking in the goodness of his word, soaking in the anointing of his presence we too can find ourselves in captivity to sickness, disease, anxiety, fear, and frustrations. Our bodies are designed for rest, and when we don't give it rest, it will take it. Let's not be stubborn and have to learn this lesson the hard way. Have faith in God and rest!