Working in Rest
“‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD.’” -Leviticus 23:3
Our world is crazy. Literally, crazy. We wake up, get ready, eat breakfast, go to work, go to lunch, go home, workout, watch TV, do homework, feed the kids, and do it all over again the next day. It’s a wonder we haven’t turned into pieces of metal machinery! But even in the midst of work and stress, there is still a way to find a place of meaningful rest in God, devoid of stress.
My dad has said, “A dead man can’t have stress.” That’s an interesting concept. If you’re dead to something, you certainly can’t have any stress. And you’re most likely very at peace. When we get to this place of complete trust and dependence upon God for our outcomes, that’s when we know we have died to ourselves. We don’t worry. We don’t fret. We do things with integrity. We do them with excellence. We do them within the boundaries God has set for our lives. But, there is no need to “worry ourselves to death.” Why? We have already “died” with Christ, and have been resurrected with Him.
After the Israelites left Egypt, they had to depend on God completely. They were no longer slaves to Egypt, or to the world’s way of thinking. They had to learn how to depend on God for everything. They had to learn how to be sons and daughters, and have peace in God’s provision for their lives. This is a paradigm shift. This is called receiving grace. There is nothing we can do apart from God. Why do we think that we can? We only stress ourselves out further by thinking that we alone are the solutions to our problems, and we can make everything happen on our own.
There’s a great book called Margin, which highlights the state we’re in, and how we’ve lost the “Margin” in our lives. I encourage you to read it. It cites very specific reasons why we’ve lost the “Margin” or extra buffer of time and resource in our lives, and how we can get it back, without losing our life’s efficacy.
Are you able to work in rest? If not, ask God to help you. He desires for all His kids to have peace in the midst of everything. This is how He can tell us apart, as true sons and daughters of His.
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