By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done. Genesis 2:2-3
“The God who didn’t need to rest chose to rest after creating the universe in six days. After doing all the work He intended to do, God stopped.
I love that God just stopped working when He’d done enough. So many times I think of one more adjustment, refinement, tweak that I can do to my project or task. Or I think of my long master to-do list and know there’s more I cold do. It’s a perfectionist’s nightmare, as it’s hard to feel like anything is finished to my satisfaction.
For years I’ve lived with an underlying sense that rest needed to be earned. Only when I’d gotten everything done, and done well, could I take a break. And if I rested before I’d deemed myself “worthy,” then guilt would steal my rest.
However, rest is not earned; it is a gift. The only contingency is we must accept it as God designed it. If we twist it so it fits our definition of rest, it’s really camouflaged work.”
Glynnis Whitwer in Doing Busy Better: Enjoying God’s Gifts of Work and Rest (Grand Rapids: Revell, 2017) excerpt from chapter 5 entitled “God’s Gift of Rest.”
Jesus declared rest as a gift for us with this proclamation.
Then He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27-28.
But we must accept it the gift made special for us by our Lord.
Today, Jenni and I are receiving the gift of rest. She’s served a group of women all weekend. I am coming off a busy season of travel. What about you? When was the last time you rested?
A generous life without rest is a life that forgets the source of refilling and refreshment.