In Need of Rest and Restoration

This message is not just for the Energizer Bunnies among us, those of us who are mentally and physically engaged from sun up to sun down. We, Energizer Bunnies admit that our routines are demanding, but there are others who also need rest and restoration. 

Isn’t it interesting how restoration’s root word is rest? It causes us to think about the process of restoration first involving elements of rest. 

Jesus has completed a prayer thanking the Father that He had hidden things from a category of people and had given the same things over to a different category. Jesus calls this the Father’s gracious will. Jesus continues his prayer saying that no one knows the Father except the Son and those whom the Son chooses to reveal Him to. 

Come to me”, says Jesus, “all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens 

and I will give you rest. 

Rest is a hidden thing. What does it mean to rest? Christian talk always includes the concept of rest. We tell people to rest in the Lord. But some of us really have struggled with what it means to rest. 

Surely it doesn’t mean to simply sleep or to sit back and numb our minds through endless entertainment. Rest can’t mean to resist work. 

What is rest? 

Rest is part of the hidden thing that Jesus thanks the Father about. It is one of the hidden things that require connection with Jesus to really obtain. 

Like so many other people, I once connected rest with being still physically. I would sit down or lay down to force my body to be physically still however my internal state would continue racing. I would be still but I wasn’t at rest. I knew I needed rest, but aside from the stillness, I wasn’t sure how to obtain rest as found in Psalm 127:2. 

Like so many who serve God as ministers, I held Verse 1 close to my heart; “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who built it labor in rain”. However, the Holy Spirit wanted me to understand the mystery of rest as found in Verse 2 “It is vain that you rise early and go late to rest, eating bread of anxious toil”. There is the mystery of rest – it is in the aspect called anxious toil. 

The King James Version says “bread of sorrows”. Rest is not simply sitting still, but it is the absence of anxious toil. The wise and intelligent have a tendency to deploy or rely heavenly on fruit of these qualities to obtain the desired result set in their hearts. Yet, children take a different approach. Seldom will you see a child, toil anxiously. 

Whether playing or doing school or learning assignments, children seldom toil anxiously. When they hit a wall and can’t accomplish something, they normally seek assistance (cry) or drop it and move on to something else. 

God wants us to be productive but not to toil anxiously. Ask yourself a question after examining your work schedule or regular habits. Ask yourself at what point did anxiousness set in while doing those objectives. Deadlines can push us to a sense of anxious toil. Lack of confidence can push us to a sense of anxious toil. Hidden wisdom can also push us to a sense of anxious toil. 

Let me tell you again, God wants us to be productive but not to toil anxiously. “Come to Me” were the instructions to all who are weary ‘and carrying heavy burdens. 

What can this look like for practical examples? 

For me, I stop what I’m working on and I begin to talk to God, I may say “Holy Spirit, I can’t figure this out, please show me what to do”. 

Where I’ve learned the need to shift is in the area of internal diagnosis. I’ve learned the mystery to rest requires me to evaluate if I’m sensing anxiousness. The moment anxiousness is identified, that must be taken directly to the Lord. 

Now is the perfect time for us to begin rest. First, because the bible says that otherwise. We function in vain. Secondly, because rest is the first move towards restoration. How many of you are hoping, trusting, wishing or believing God for the restoration? I am. I am praying for restoration in many areas: personal, national, physical and financial. 

What Jesus teaches us is that true restoration is accomplished by God. But that we sit back in a lounge chair while God does all the work. 

Restoration is accomplished by God because the Lord takes the toil out of our steps. Each step is at the right time and the right place. Each conversation works for the cause of restoration. Each contract. Each action. God directs us away from wasteful toil, so that we move along the path of restoration. Sometimes restoration looks and feels strange but it is God’s straight path. 

Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection was neither toil nor anxious. It was a path that resulted in the restoration of humanity. It was work. It was painful. It was hard. But it wasn’t anxious toil. 

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