Jesus was a man who needed rest. This may sound heretical when our understanding of Jesus is that He is God incarnate. Yes, Jesus is God. Scripture also teaches that Jesus laid aside His “Godness” to indwell humanity so that He may make a way for us to be children of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)
In order for humanity to be rescued from itself, God the Son came to earth to live a life submitted to the Father so that we could have an example of a fully committed life. Jesus wept, was tired, was tempted, rested, got hungry, and thirsty – all human experiences. We all experience emotions, eat, drink, are tempted and take naps. I wonder if we really know what it means to rest?
Here are some thoughts and personal experiences.
1. Jesus desires your spiritual rest.
“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”” Matthew 11:28-30
The word rest here is translated from the Greek, anapauō, which means
1 — to cause or permit one to cease from any movement or labor in order to recover and collect his strength
2 — to give rest, refresh, to give one’s self rest, take rest
3 — to keep quiet, of calm and patient expectation
In a few words, recover, refresh, quiet, calm, patients.
Spiritually speaking, Jesus desires you to be settled in Him. He is the answer to your pursuit. He is the answer to your struggle. He is the answer to the longing in your heart. He is the answer for your soul. He is.
Do you find yourself with spiritual angst? How about spiritual questions? Do you continually ask yourself the same questions? (Am I safe? Am I secure? What will happen to me? Why am I here? What is my purpose? What is life all about? And many others?)
Jesus came to secure your spiritual rest. You can trust Him. He will not disappoint you. He will fulfill His promises. He is the Way, Truth, and Life. Give your heart to him. Abandon your doubts and pursuit of spiritual peace and allow Him to pick up that burden.
2. Jesus desires your physical rest.
Throughout Scripture, we see the need for mankind to work. Work is a necessary human experience. If we don’t work, we won’t eat. Many of us are plagued with workaholism. We enjoy work. We never quit. We are always looking for things to work on and to be productive. We are addicted to productivity. Productivity and accomplishments become our idol. We feel less than and worthless if we are not producing. Even our days off are filled with motion. We go on vacation and fill the time away with activities and productivity.
It’s really hard to rest physically. We feel like we aren’t taking advantage of the time we have. My family used to go on “work vacations”. These were full of active fun and work. We didn’t rest much.
What does it mean to physically rest?
“You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but on the seventh day you must stop working, even during the seasons of plowing and harvest.” Exodus 34:21
Since the creation of the universe, God has established work and rest. The word for rest comes from the Hebrew word šābat. This is where we get the worth Sabbath in English. This word means to “stop working” or to “stop exerting yourself”. When Jesus came to the earth, He was the greatest example and fulfilled of the work/rest rhythm. He made sure to set up rhythms of labor and time away.
With the rise of the digital age, it is harder and harder to rest. Even now as I’m typing this blog, it is physical exertion and mental exercise to make it happen. We don’t have much time to get away and rest. Sports, TV, cell phones, friends, day jobs, and more keep us continually engaged and continually exerting ourselves.
How do we rest physically? This is a question I have asked and re-asked myself over and over again. How do I rest?
Here’s what I have learned and observed about myself. If I don’t schedule it, it won’t happen. This seems counter intuitive. Most of us think that we’ll know when we need to rest. The truth is we over do it and then crash and burn because we didn’t realize we had gone too far without rest.
I also know that a 30 minute nap during the work day does wonders. Before you judge too hard, give it a shot and see how much more energy you have later in the day.
I protect my day off. I set aside 1 day per week to not be productive. No sermon prep, no physical labor, no work. This is really challenging to accomplish. Our world is not set up for this. It takes practice. I don’t always succeed, but I keep trying.
My next plan is to include technology in this day off. My phone, email, texting etc. This will take some doing. I will update my progress as I figure this one out.
3. Jesus desires your emotional rest.
There are probably people in your life that drain you. I know there are people in mine – no names here. 😄
Emotionally, we all carry baggage. We all have struggles. We all have issues. People around us can make this better or worse. There is only so much crap we can handle or carry.
Check this out:
“Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John (the brother of James).” Mark 5:37
This wasn’t the only time these three were exclusively with Jesus. They were important to Him. They encouraged Him, helped Him, laughed with Him, cried with Him, and walked with Him. We know there were 12 men and countless women who made up Jesus’ inner circle, but these three went with Jesus alone many times.
It seems to me that Jesus was encouraged emotionally by these men. They saw Him in most situations. They were there when He healed and rescued. They were also there when He cried and was stressed.
Jesus was a man who needed His friends. The emotional support they gave Him shows us we need the same.
Who is in your life that fills you emotionally? Who is in your life that drains you? Choose to spend more time with the fillers than the drainers.
Jesus desires you to rest.
Spiritually.
Physically.
Emotionally.
What’s keeping you from rest today?
ray on life 