When I was a young boy Sunday was truly a day of rest from the activities of the week. Businesses, including retail stores and gas stations, were closed for the day to give employees a day off to rest. All that has changed. Now we go twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Our schedules are filled with endless activities. No time to stop and be still. When we do have extra time, technology, which was supposed to make life simpler, fills that space.
When God created man and woman, He also gave them a day of rest from the very beginning. God knew that we had limitations and as Jesus revealed to us in Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” In our 24/7 culture to cease work for one day seems totally impossible and now appears to be prophetic. In Daniel 12:4 we are told that one sign of the end is “man shall run to and fro,” and in Luke 21:34 individuals will be “weighed down with … anxieties (worries) of life,” and missing the signs of the end of the age.
I recall on one occasion I was standing next to the death bed of a man who had attended one of the churches I pastored. His three children were present and were discussing who would get what with some intensity. Suddenly, out of his weak state, the father said, “Stop. It’s only stuff.” Oh, the stuff we fill our lives with that create stress, worry, anxiety, and weariness. I remember Jessie telling me a conversation she had with her mother when she was caring for her shortly before her death. She told Jessie to never forget, “eternity values at hand.”
We talk about the final resting place for our loved ones, when in fact God wants us to learn how to rest in Him every day, both now and forever. Jesus said, “Come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.” (Matthew 11:28-30) The promise of Jesus is rest from the burdens of life, worry, anxiety, depression, fear, fretting, guilt of sin, the anguish of loss and all the forms these take.
When I think of rest it is not only a time when I cease from activities, but in addition, when I am working, to know that I am resting in the arms of Jesus. Knowing He never leaves nor forsakes me. He goes before me. Knowing that in my life He is working all things for good, caring for every detail as I trust Him. That I am in the center of His will for my life to His honor and glory and the furtherance of His Kingdom and enjoying His presence on a moment by moment basis.
One of my dad’s favorite hymns was “In the Garden.” The lyrics tell us the story of resting in the arms of Jesus:
I come to the Garden alone,
while the dew is still on the roses,
and the voice I hear,
falling on my ears,
the Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me,
and He talks with me,
and He tells me I am His own,
and the joy we share as we tarry there,
none other has ever known.