Are We Getting Rest Wrong?
Has Jesus ever invited you to rest? Have you ever found yourself floundering, failing to grasp the meaning of the word, “rest”?
So have I.
Usually I just keep going from task to task until my mind is mush and I cannot even think of the next task much less accomplish it.
Then the crash comes.
I find myself so mentally, emotionally, or spiritually exhausted I avoid anything that makes me think, including my mental prayer. I cannot concentrate, which results in an inability to give myself to Him - which is what prayer is all about and, when I am in this state, is exactly what I cannot do.
WHAT IF WE UNDERSTOOD REST THE WAY JEWS DID IN THE BIBLE?
So, how is the Lord calling us to rest, especially so that we do not reach total exhaustion that results in mental, emotional, or spiritual check-out?
I propose that by “rest” Jesus did not mean exhausting ourselves until we can no longer function and then binge watching a new show on Netflix or engaging in an eight hour marathon of video games. Having an understanding of the Old Testament concept of rest can help us to understand how we are getting rest wrong.
As part of a class I teach on religions in the world I show a video of a modern Jewish family observing the Sabbath rest. The morning before the Sabbath observance begins, (the Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday evening until sundown on Saturday) the mother of the family completes all the prep for the Sabbath meal, ending by putting the main dish in an oven with a timer set to cook for lunch the next day. This is so she will not be obligated to prep or cook the meal on the Sabbath.
Traditional Jewish worship requirements include prayer at the local synagogue followed by a family meal and more prayers in the home. Family time and especially the sharing of the meal is part of the required worship.
For the day nothing distracts from prayer and family time. All electronics are put away (including cell phones), there are no sports practices or games, no shopping, no homework, and no catching up on career or job duties. All the energy one possesses is directed to worship, prayer and family.
In other words, the Jews rest from obligations and entertainment in order to direct all their energy to observing the Sabbath. The Jewish rest is not vegging out in an attempt to escape physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual exhaustion. Rather, the Jews of the Old Testament understood that on the Sabbath they spent all their energy on worship. This is also a way they obeyed the great commandment: “Hear, O Israel!* The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength” (Deut. 6:4-5).
WHAT IS THE REST THAT JESUS PROMISES IN MATTHEW 11:28?
So, what kind of rest does Jesus invite us to in Matthew 11:28 when He says, “...I will give you rest,”?
I propose there are times in every Christian life when Jesus calls us to sink more deeply into Him by focusing all the energy we usually spend in other places and other things exclusively on Him. Why is this important?
Prayer is the door to our interior lives, and if you have made serious attempts at opening that interior door, you have discovered as I have, that prayer is serious and exhasting interior work. It is the kind of work that when engaged in, creates a very real need to refrain from all the things that usually drain our energy. Prayer is the furnace in which we are purified as gold in fire and the fire is Love Himself, molding each heart into a more perfect image of Himself.
Prayer is where we can benefit from the rest promised by Jesus, a rest which will transform us when we are willing to cooperate in the interior work. The rest Jesus offers is His transforming grace. It is the kind of rest that gives life and refreshment to the soul, even if it exhausts the mind and heart. His rest is transformation.
How do we enter into this kind of rest? We develop a routine of going to our “inner room,” (Matt. 6:6) where the King of our soul awaits us in the secret part of our heart ready to unite us to Himself. By virtue of this union, we will be transformed for the rest of eternal life.
