Rest

A Place of Quiet Rest

We claim that we aim for a place of quiet rest
Even as we fill our days, afternoons, evenings with activity
Until we fall into bed, collapse exhausted, asking,
"Why is there no quiet? Why is there no rest?"
Perhaps we need to examine our willingness
To sacrifice sound for silence, noise for knowledge, willy-nillyness for wisdom.
Perhaps we only think we yearn for a place of quiet rest,
While our hearts are not committed to that,
And until they are, there will be neither quiet nor rest.

Come Away and Rest Awhile

"Come away and rest a while," said the Lord to His weary disciples.
The same can be said for so many of us now.
We need to separate ourselves from
The everyday demands and
The seasonal pressures to
Rest a while with Him,
Savior and Shepherd,
Lie down in green pastures,
Partake of still waters,
Be refreshed in soul.
Hear that sweet call:
"Come away and rest a while."

Rest

Our Creator is the One who established rest when, as we are told in Genesis 2, He rested on the seventh day from all His work.  Later, in Exodus 20, He put a Sabbath rest in place.  But we don't really "get" rest or resting.  There is always one more task to do, one more phone call to make, one more text to send, one more e-mail to respond to, one more--until we fall into bed exhausted yet with a to-do-list running on the treadmills of our minds.

We need to revisit what the Scriptures include about rest.  Both Old and New Testaments testify to the importance of more than one kind of rest.

"Everyone" knows the Ten Commandments, which include this in Exodus 20:
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner with you.  For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy" (vv. 6-11).  Exodus is not the only book in the Old Testament where commands regarding rest come up.

In the New Testament, Matthew 11:28-30 is a passage often referred to:
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Picture that!  Sharing this common implement with the Lord and in so doing, learning from Him?  Who doesn't want that kind of soul rest?

In Mark 6:30-33, the Lord recognized the need for physical rest:
"The apostles gathered together with Jesus, and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught.  And He said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest awhile.' (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.)  They went away in a boat to a secluded place by themselves."  As you read in Mark 6, you learn this rest didn't last long.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 likewise refers to a form of rest:
"and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."  When our faith rests on the power of God, it is a sure and eternal rest.

Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9--another often referenced passage--states:
"And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'  Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell [or rest] in me."  Again, we rest not in our power but Christ's.

And the writer of Hebrews in  chapters 3 and 4 compares and contrasts the restlessness of unbleif and the rest promised believer, with reference back to the Old Testament.

For example, we read Hebrews 4:8-13:
"For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.  For there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.  For the one who has entered His rest has himself  also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disbelief. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

My understanding of the rest which believers have is twofold:  we have a rest from works which we thought salvific but then rested in the completed works of Christ; and, when we die, we will rest in the presence of Christ.

I once wrote a poem about that second form of rest:

It is that rest

It is that rest for which we long,
The rest for the residents,
The rest and the song,
The praises presented to our Lord and Kind,
Before the throne.
It is that rest for which we strive
While earth calls us "alive."
It is that rest within our breast
For which we long,
The rest and the song.
The last breath here is  the first breath of eternity,
And now that pulls us through until
The rest and the song are ours too.