Real Rest

What is true rest? As things have started to pick up pace for me at IHOP with many new opportunities to serve, this has been a question that I have been asking the Lord. The main point that He has taught me is that rest is not a quantity of time but a quality of life.

As Americans, we think about rest as something we have to take (e.g. "I’m going to take a vacation") whereas biblically it is given to us. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to Me all you who labor and are weary and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." We need to shift our view - our paradigm - of what rest is. Rest is not cessation from all outward activity but rather it is a place where we are inwardly at peace with God. It is also something we must work for. "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God...let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest." (Hebrews 4:9,11a) A few ways we can achieve that rest are put forth in the following verses in Hebrews 4. We can meditate on the Word of God (vs. 12), on His sovereignty and omniscience (vs. 13), and on the Son of God as our Savior and as our Mediator and great High Priest (vs. 14-16).

I have found rest the past few weeks while being very busy and running around all over the place. I meet with a small group where every week we discuss one verse from Song of Solomon. This past week's verse was Song of Solomon 2:3, "Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down in His shade with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste." It was a busy week for me and I kept asking God when I was going to get time to "sit down in the shade" and rest. As the week progressed, He revealed to me the point that I mentioned earlier - that rest is not stopping what I am doing but communing with Him. I feel so "alive" on the inside as I meditate on the Word and as I live out my life as described in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. The fruit that this verse mentions could point to the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Walking out the commands of God brings rest even in the busyness of life. All this to say, God will give us the rest we desire as we pursue Him.