This is part 2 of a 5-part series. View the entire series here.
“Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work...For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day He rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.” – Exodus 20:8-11 NLT
God’s Design for Work and Rest
God wove the rhythm of work and rest into the very fabric of creation. He created, and then He rested, and when His people were finally settled in the Promised Land, He wanted them to rest too.
Why?
So they would always remember God and His provision. So they would know they’d never have to work to earn His love. So they would experience regular refreshment to strengthen and sustain them.
These days, the world runs at a million miles an hour and often asks—or even requires—us to do the same. Work more, produce more, achieve more, buy more. Go on more vacations, make more friends, get a good promotion, buy a bigger house. Up and up and up, because if you’re not going up you’re falling behind. For many of us, life has become a treadmill of slowly increasing speed, and we like to think we’ve been doing a pretty good job of keeping pace. But how long can we possibly sustain a trajectory like this? And more importantly—are we even supposed to?
Well, to put it simply: No.
The rhythm of work and rest that God set in place at the beginning of creation is still His design for us. As hard as that is to accept, as unrealistic as it may seem, whether you think you have the time for it or not, it’s still a command on our lives from the Creator Himself. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God.
So amidst all the craziness of our schedules and the busyness of our day-to-day, how do we prioritize rest?
1. Shift Your Mindset
The first step to getting a rhythm of work and rest engrained in your very being is to remind yourself that God gives rest as a gift. He knows that you’re a human being with limited capacity for activity and stimulation. God puts absolutely no expectation on you to be working all the time—even if there is such an expectation from society, from your boss, or even from your own self.
Rest also isn’t something you have to earn. If I do this many chores, then I can rest. If I finish this report by 5 p.m., I’ll relax for the rest of the evening. That’s not how it works. Yes, we all have responsibilities and people to answer to and tasks we need to get done, and we shouldn’t neglect those things. But rest isn’t the prize at the end of the race. It’s the heart and mind posture that we should be running the race from in the first place!
2. Create Margin in Your Day
Constantly bustling from one activity or task to the next leaves us in a perpetual state of feeling like we’re falling behind, or like we can’t ever quite “catch up” to our lives.
Creating margin within your daily routine is a great way to combat this. It forces you to slow down, breathe, and re-center your heart on Christ. Creating margin could mean waking up 30 minutes earlier than you normally do so you can have time to pray and read your Bible. Or taking a walk during your lunch break instead of scrolling on your phone. Or building an evening wind-down routine to prepare your body and mind for sleep. In other words, give yourself moments throughout your day—even just five minutes here and there—where your brain is completely shut off from external stimuli.
Over time, these tiny moments of respite will have a bigger impact on your mind and heart than you might expect.
3. Start Sabbath Small
If you’ve never before implemented Sabbath into your weekly rhythm, it can be an overwhelming prospect. When you’re used to cramming every free minute of your day with work and activity, it’s going to feel nearly impossible to lay everything down for 24 whole hours.
Maybe you can’t commit to a full 24 hours right off the bat. That’s okay! Start small with whatever time you have. If that’s a few hours on a Saturday evening, or every other Tuesday morning—make it work for you and your family, and then lengthen that time as you’re able to.
The Benefits of Living in Rhythm
When you’re living in rhythm, you can be “busy” and still operate from a place of rest. So center your mind and heart on Christ. Rely on Him for provision and sustenance. Allow yourself small moments of rest throughout the day and then longer times of rest once a week. You’ll start to find that, though the pace of your life may not actually be getting slower, you yourself feel slower. More at peace. Less irritable. Quicker to listen, to be kind, to show generosity to those around you.
As we move into the new year, accept the gift of rest that your loving Father freely gives to you.
