True Rest
True Rest
The Practice of Resting in Jesus
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-burdened and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
Tomorrow is a gift. A day drawing near set aside in our week for worship and for rest. You might ask “Hasn’t my whole week been this? I’ve been cooped up in our house, sometimes wandering from room to room, trying my best to hang on to my sanity! I’ve gotten little done and I can’t really go anywhere. How could tomorrow be any different from the rest of this week?”
I wanted to offer you a few encouragements as you and your family prepare for the gift of tomorrow by providing some considerations of what rest might look like for the gift we call the Lord’s Day. Please know these encouragements are suggestions. We need to be very careful not to make the Lord’s Day so prescriptive that it becomes more about us and our performance than Jesus and His rest. Performing for God is not restful. Resting in God is. So here goes:
Take some dedicated time to reflect on the beauty of God’s creation. Maybe take a family walk and savor the cool air in your lungs, the sighting or sound of the newly-returned birds, the wave to a neighbor also released from their homebound captivity. Remove any expectation of going a certain distance on this walk like we might in our weekly exercise routine. Walk until you’re done walking.
The Lord’s Day is also a day set apart to rest in the work Jesus has finished for us. A day we can rest from our God-given vocations. What physical things remind you of work that can be put away? The phone? The laptop? The children? (kidding).
It is also an opportunity to enjoy an activity that is avocational like a hobby. Sabbath can also serve as an “exchange.” If you primarily use your mind in your work during the week, rest by using your hands to draw or woodwork or knit. If you primarily use your hands for work, rest with hands by using your mind in reading a fiction book or write a poem.
It’s also a day in which we might rest from the things we’re known for beyond our jobs. People might know you to be the runner around the neighborhood. Maybe walk instead. You might be the servant in your family who always makes dinner. Be served instead.
In preparing for a live-stream, artificially-feeling worship service, maybe be in a room the family considers restful and quiet. Try to turn off or remove any distractions which might call for your attention. We are going to try again to avoid a whole lot of attention given to the COVID-19 situation in our worship service to allow our minds a rest from it’s potential grip on us. Maybe also consider some time to sing or pray or read Scripture around the dinner table.
Take a nap. Guilt-free. Maybe take a long one, maybe take two short ones.
Whatever you choose to do to help carve out rest and remember Christ, remember these practices of rest are there like prayers of gratitude for the work He has done for us and the rest we have been given in Him. Father, may tomorrow be a day where we are reminded of the rest we have in Jesus, who finished the work we could never do and gave us the rest we did not deserve. Amen.
Thoughts for Reflection
What makes resting a challenge for you? What is difficult for you to “put away?”
What is one intentional way you might make tomorrow, the Lord’s Day, look unique from the rest?