The Bible gives us a wonderful picture regarding the word "rest", as it is used almost 300 times it would be beneficial for us to look at. Given the fact that we live in such a rushed and restless culture, God's instructions for resting are vital to living free from stress. Stress is a major factor in our culture and has a major influence in our lives, both mentally and physically. Our rest is an important place of faith, trust, and essential means of accessing God's divine resources to meet our pressing needs.

Rest that refreshes

The first place this word is used is in Genesis 2:2 where it is recorded that after God created the earth, He rested on the seventh day. He was not tired from all the labor, of course, but He was done. He ceased from His works of creation. This is the picture, revealed throughout Scripture, of God's Sabbath-rest for His covenant people and its accompanying benefit.

A greater purpose for rest is recorded in Exodus 31:17 and connected with what Moses wrote in Genesis. Moses records here that God not only rested but was "refreshed" by what He had done. This word refreshed is defined as, to breathe or to be breathed upon. So, God's rest included a refreshing from all that He had done and from viewing the awesome beauty of the creation. In that moment of appreciation of the creation, a breath of refreshment (a work of the Holy Spirit) came back to Him as He viewed the works of His hands.

We are usually preoccupied with what is happening in our lives today. Perhaps it would be helpful if we would stop and look back at what God has done in our past, I believe it would result in a change in our attitudes and create fresh peace. Its purpose would be to gain a new awareness of His love and mercy, how in our crisis God was there working. We cannot live in the past but we can certainly rehearse God's intervention in a crisis that we faced. We can discover ways that God moved that we were unaware of at that moment and come to a new appreciation we didn't have before.

I promise you, if you do, you will truly be refreshed at what God accomplished in your life when others were writing your obituary! The Holy Spirit can and will refreshingly breathe fresh joy and peace in your heart as you realize anew and with greater appreciation, how much the Father loves you.

May your Sabbath be times of refreshing as you reflect on His love and grace, not simply cessation of hard labor (even for good things).

More tomorrow on finding rest...