22 August 2009 | 4 comments

God’s cure for weariness Jean Williams

Mel24/08/2009 04:27 PM

Jean, this is a wonderful post on the true meaning of rest. My friend and I were pondering this concept at church this evening and then I came home and found your post… God’s sovereignty never ceases to amaze!

Finding rest in the Lord makes sense when considering our entire relationship with God:
-we have peace with our creator, a great reason to be restful.
-this peace has been achieved through the work of Jesus. The work has been done, and just as God rested after 6 days of creating the world. we can surely rest now that Jesus has done his work.
-God is our refuge… we can rest in him.
-and I’m sure there are plenty more connections.


Thanks Jean!

Jean Williams25/08/2009 12:45 AM

Thanks, Mel, I’m glad you found it helpful. smile

Emma Thornett26/08/2009 06:02 AM

Jean,

Oh, thank you! I really struggle with the whole idea of rest. Certainly I don’t struggle with being able to rest (I’m very good at it ... sometimes I wonder if sleeping is one of my spiritual gifts). And, as you say, of course we need sensible amounts of sleep, rest, exercise and refreshment. That’s common sense, and many of us are not very good at remembering or realising our human limits.

But when I read the New Testament, I don’t see many commands for us to rest more. Paul’s example is not primarily one of a man who makes sure he gets enough rest. In fact, I see just the opposite.

And therein lies my struggle. Thoughts?

Jean Williams26/08/2009 06:38 AM

Hi Emma,

My thoughts as I wrote this post(!) included hesitation about posting it because I know Christians from both sides of the “rest” equation: some who are naturally lazy and need to remember why we’re on this earth - to serve God and others, even at cost to our own rest; and some who overwork, don’t take enough rest, and don’t need more encouragement to do so!

I think some of us need to hear the message “work hard” and some of us need to hear the message “take regular rest”. Not because there’s some mythical place of balance between these two extremes, but because we should all be pouring ourselves out in God’s service, but at the same time making sure we don’t act in proud workaholism, as if we’re the Creator and don’t need the rest that God supplies. In other words, we all need to both work hard and take regular rest (although not view it as a right, and depend on God when we don’t get it).

What you say about Paul is right: he doesn’t seem to take much rest! Although I guess you can’t argue from silence. Jesus certainly took times away from the crowds to reflect and pray alone with his disciples. And while we’re not under the law, the fact that God gave his people 1 day in 7 to rest says something about how he made us - and also that he gave us good gifts like sleep, food and rest, and made us dependent on them, to remind us that we’re not God!

In Christ,

Jean.

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Paul is one of the Staff Editors at Matthias Media. He is married to Cathy and has three fantastic kids. He loves student ministry, reading, writing music and playing the saxophone, and is looking forward to meeting Jesus face to face.

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