Working Towards God's Rest (Summer 2024 Journal Entry)

Working Hard

Have you ever worked really hard for a long time without a break or a vacation?  There was a period when our kids were very young that we couldn't afford to go on a vacation for around 5 years.  It was a trying time, and I was overdue for a vacation, a rest.

At work right now I'm in the middle of a rather intense year.  There are a lot of eyes (senior management, c-suite executives, and customers) closely watching our project and we've been given very aggressive deadlines to meet whilst training new people on our platform.  Work happens almost 24/7 because our teams are in timezones around the world - I've got 6 different timezones with 18 hrs of difference just with the members of my team. Lots of extra hours, fervour, concentration, zest, positive tension and passion makes it difficult to disengage from work after I've left my desk.

I've been thinking about Moses and the Israelites coming out of Egypt.  They had been literally slaving away for 400 years without vacations.  God wanted to give them a rest in the Promised Land.  But when God led them away from their work and placed the offer of rest in front of them, they balked.  Rather stuck in a rut, they couldn't get past their fear, didn't believe in the offer or that God would help them obtain it, and consequently wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.    

Sometimes its difficult to get out of an old mindset:

- From unbelief to believing.  

- From doing to being.

- From the treadmill of 'slavery' and works (doing things to 'achieve' God's approval, to God's rest)

God's Offer of Rest

The writer of Hebrews makes it abundantly clear in chapters 3 and 4 that we've been offered that same rest as Moses and the children of Israel.  I believe that offer of rest is a multi-faceted promise:

• Rest in the here-and-now because of God's promises for us today that say things like 'Be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known to God, and the God of peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus'
• And rest in the here-after in heaven.

That offer still stands for us now! Listen to the beginning of Hebrews 4:

"For as long, then, as that promise of resting in him pulls us on to God’s goal for us, we need to be careful that we’re not disqualified. We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn’t do them a bit of good because they didn’t receive the promises with faith. If we believe, though, we’ll experience that state of resting. But not if we don’t have faith."

Joyce Meyer suggests that the rest of God is not a rest from work—it’s a rest in work. It’s partnering with God to do what He is calling me to do by His grace.  Listen to this (talking emphatically to myself): Trusting that since God's called you into this work, He'll align the people and events with the experience and training you've got to 'work together to accomplish His good purpose.'

An Analogy

The Bible often draws metaphors between God's followers and sheep.  Consider sheep: They don't really 'do' anything to provide value to the shepherd or owner.  They just eat, grow, grow wool, reproduce...  What they 'need to do' to be successful, is trust their shepherd.  If they can't do that, there's problems. They'll be anxious, go hunger or thirsty, and potentially get into trouble or wander off.  Trust and rest walk hand in hand.  You can't really be trusting if you're worried, anxious, or fearful.  All of those emotions make it difficult to rest.  

Sheep resting
Photo by Ambitious Studio* | Rick Barrett on Unsplash

Jesus asks and calls after us in Matthew 11, 'Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.'

Another Offer of Rest - Sept 2024 Update

This fall continues to be busy for me at work.  I've additionally been struggling with some incongruity between the responsibilities I've been given and my official position/title.  Several times 'what is fair?' has threatened to overwhelm my thoughts and I've been tempted to communicate something rash.  This issue came front and centre last Monday after mid-year employee 'Success Reviews.'  I needed to hear from God what to do, as I felt justified to push back hard.  I prayed that God would speak to me, and He did, quite directly given the situation and my meditations in this blog post, through a verse in Isaiah:

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
Isaiah 30:15

Follow-up Thoughts

In Genesis, Jacob (son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham) did things on his own.  He worked 14 years for his wives, grew his flock, moved rocks, etc.  He perhaps found it easy to trust in his own strength.  Then God performs an intervention in his life with wrestling match, and essentially forces Jacob into a period of rest by permanently throwing his leg out of joint.  After that, Jacob had to trust God for everything.  Its an interesting foreshadowing of what happens with the Israelites in Egypt...

A microscopic subset of the people who left Egypt actually entered into the promised land - Joshua and Caleb - out of everybody!  Is this a foreshadowing of the ratio of the remanent of the church?  That's a sobering thought!