Pursuing God's RestSample

Pursuing God's Rest

Often when we think about resting, we have this idea that we are laying down, doing absolutely nothing and being fast asleep. That had been my idea of rest most of my life, and today we live in a world where we must actually fight to find time to rest. But rest is so much more than just being asleep or being stationary. Rest has a lot to do with our inner man, often we lay down to sleep but suddenly we are awakened by a panic attack due to a dream, and once we are awake the thoughts of our future, finances, children, relationships, business or ministry bombard us. Mind you, we are in a resting position, but still, the inner man is at work. We can be sitting on a white sandy beach overlooking blue ocean waters and still not be at rest because thoughts, phone calls, and social media encroach at our doors competing for our attention. Long ago people worked hard during the day; an eight-hour shift and return home for dinner with the family around a table with some delightful conversations, probably catch TV together or pray together and then bed.

In these times money has become our god, and the body, soul, and spirit of man are disregarded and neglected to gain more, achieve more, and pursue more. Excessive material possessions have ruined the sanctity of family and marriage. We work longer and harder, and even though the money may be coming in, we stand to lose much more like our health, the chance of making memories, and recreation time to enjoy all that God has given us. God has designed us to work, but he also created us for rest. 

God lives by the principle of rest, and we see this principle while he was creating the earth, the bible tells us that "On the seventh day God rested" (Genesis 2:2 NIV). God considers rest holy that's how serious this topic of rest is. Long before God gave the laws to the Israelites, God declared the Sabbath as holy and necessary. God later commanded his people to celebrate the Sabbath as a lasting covenant between him and them. (Exodus 31:16)

God is the designer of all creation, and he knows what we need better than we do. God knew the earth, the soil, the trees, the birds, the fish, the cattle and all other creation would need rest. Giving up one day out of seven days to the Lord is a sign we trust him as our provider, and we rely on him to sustain us and not our own strength. God is about rest, and he said because the children of Israel were disobedient in the wilderness and because they refused to believe him, they will not enter his rest. (Psalm 95:10 – 11)

As we look across the globe many diseases are arising, people are suffering from hypertension, anxiety, and fear and the medical field is working tirelessly to find cures for them all. Perhaps if we pursued the rest of God the way we seek money and material stuff, we might find the cure we are looking for. Let us pursue God's rest today!