By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
The post discusses the need for rest as life seasons change, acknowledging shifting energy levels from youth to adulthood. I emphasize the importance of balancing rest with productivity, advocating for discipline in scheduling downtime. I encourage intentional rest practices, grounded in faith, to avoid burnout and maintain spiritual connection with God.
Continue reading “Finding Balance: The Art of Rest in Busy Lives”By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
The seventh day, sanctified by God for rest, underlines a universal need for downtime. Studies indicate productivity diminishes beyond 55-hour workweeks, showing God’s wisdom in structured work balanced with rest enhances efficiency. Christians remember Jesus as a model for intentional breaks amidst busy lives, supporting a cyclical rhythm of work and worship.
Continue reading “It’s crazy to be ‘crazy busy’”By Elizabeth Prata
Are the weeks getting longer, or is it just me? By the time Friday comes, I’m just pretty tired!
Of course, I’m thrilled to have been working in a job I love, so no complaints there. Weekends are an opportunity to rest and reflect on the week. I like to think back and go over the times where I may have stumbled and use the weekend for Bible reading or household tasks to keep my place shipshape. Also to enjoy the nature around me, and slow down to contemplate life- this one and the next.
I like to look back and praise the Holy Spirit for when I see where He helped me overcome something. I pray, study and think on Him and His word. Sundays are days for worship and fellowship, praising Him. In short, weekends are not only respite from the busy week but a clearing of space and time to reflect on the relationship I have with Him.
The Bible does not speak much of the concept of rest, except that when it does speak of rest, it is always in the future. There are few people resting in the Bible. They are always busy.
Even in Genesis 49:15 where Jacob said “When he saw that a resting place was good, And that the land was pleasant, He bowed his shoulder to bear burdens, And became a slave at forced labor” it means that they saw that the place was permanent and restful so they worked hard to prepare it for the day in the future when they could rest.
Hebrews 4 discusses rest. In that verse, the LORD is called the Rest. Heaven is the place of rest. (Also Psalms 5:11 and Hebrews 3:11).
God said for the Israelites to let the land rest, let it lie fallow every seventh year.
Of course, the most important mention of rest was in Genesis 2:3 where God Himself rested on the 7th day. “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
I like to be busy for the Lord and to use every minute I can to do His will and further His kingdom. But at times we have to stop. Continual work for the sake of work is not good. Though God was not tired, He stopped and rested on the 7th day to show US we need it. In addition, He didn’t just stop and rest, He blessed the day, AND He made it holy.
God made the sabbath a day of rest so rest must be important. He blessed the day, which means we should honor the sabbath and Him who established it in ancient days. He made it holy, putting His holy hands around the day as a hedge to set it apart as a day to honor Him, specifically.
Many other more worthy and academic people have preached on the importance of sabbath rest, so I’ll just say that as busy as I am and I like to be, setting aside a time when I can simply meditate on Him, praise Him, sing to Him, and rejoice in Him is a blessing indeed.
On this earth, we are called to work, to fight, to persevere, to wrestle, to run. There is no rest for us, the weary. At least, NOT YET. Picture the sabbath rests of those few precious hours on a Sunday as a drop of water on the tongue of parched worker, soothing for but a moment; but when we enter THE Rest, and lay down our burdens in heaven, the full flowing water will slake our thirst forever and we may then rest. Imagine how refreshing it will be!
The permanent rest will be as a flowing fountain of peace, thoroughly drenching every cell of ours and relaxing us to a degree none can even imagine. No more fighting! No more persevering! No more wrestling! No more running! Our rest will be Jesus Himself!
Hold on but a bit longer. Enjoy your Sabbath day knowing it is a drop of a foretaste of what is to come. And it will come, and SOON!
My favorite Andy Griffith episode is called Man in a Hurry. It’s from Season 3, episode 16. A businessman from the city is traveling through and his car breaks down at the edge of Mayberry. It’s a Sunday, though, and nothing is stirring, even a mouse. Not until church lets out, and even then, the hard-working citizens of Mayberry are committed to and enjoy their Sabbath rest. The man’s frustration with the towns’ seeming unwillingness to help him fix his car grows until he eventually succumbs to the slow-down sweetness of friendship, rest, and communion.
When people reflect on the old TV show they usually mention their most enjoyable scenes are when one or more characters are sitting on the front porch, not doin’ anything much. In the scene below, it’s Sunday, it’s after church and Sunday dinner, Andy and Barney simply sit, listen to the crickets, or softly sing hymns.
Here is Sinclair Ferguson on “Sabbath Rest“. What IS Sabbath rest, anyway?
In creation, man was made as God’s image—intended “naturally” as God’s child to reflect his Father. Since his Father worked creatively for six days and rested on the seventh, Adam, like a son, was to copy Him. Together, on the seventh day, they were to walk in the garden. That day was a time to listen to all the Father had to show and tell about the wonders of His creating work.
Thus the Sabbath Day was meant to be “Father’s Day” every week. It was “made” for Adam. It also had a hint of the future in it. The Father had finished His work, but Adam had not.
Ferguson continues explaining the Sabbath rest and then turns to what the Sabbath should mean to us Christians now that Jesus has come. It’s a good read.
Saturdays are a pile-up day. I picture Saturdays for most people as a day when the litter along the side of the road has blown up against a fence. All the chores, tasks, things you’d planned to do have blown up against Saturday and it’s a busy day attending to them all. Children’s birthday parties, sports games, visiting Mom and Dad, grocery shopping, laundry, school projects….the list is endless. With all the hurry-hurry on Saturdays, it’s sometimes hard to stop that momentum on Sunday.
But we’re supposed to.
But one may ask: “How does this impact my Sundays as a Christian?” This view of the Sabbath should help us regulate our weeks. Sunday is “Father’s Day,” and we have an appointment to meet Him. The child who asks “How short can the meeting be?” has a dysfunctional relationship problem—not an intellectual, theological problem—something is amiss in his fellowship with God.
This view of the Sabbath helps us deal with the question “Is it ok to do … on Sunday?—because I don’t have any time to do it in the rest of the week?” If this is our question, the problem is not how we use Sunday, it is how we are misusing the rest of the week.
As you conclude your day today, if you are reading this on a Saturday (or any other day for that matter), are you in a hurry? Are you cramming in things to do in and around church services? Are you distracted, frazzled, hurried? Slow down. Reflect on how you’re using the week, and how your rest on the Sabbath is to be used as a refreshment to your soul and a reflection of all that God has done and is doing.
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Further reading
12 ways your phone is changing you, Tony Reinke article
What does it mean that Jesus is our Sabbath rest?, Robin Schumacher at Compelling Truth
the-end-time.org 