Good morning. I like drugs. Let me clarify that last statement. I like legal over the counter extra strength pain relievers. Can you imagine life without something as simple as ibuprofen? The toothache is much better and I actually feel somewhat normal this morning. The relief came so suddenly I have to give the glory to God and the power of prayer. I’ll have to admit though, a walk through some intense pain will definitely improve the frequency of your prayer life! It’s kinda funny (and kinda sad) when everything is hunky dory, we sail along and enjoy the view and since we have no need of God, we give Him a little distance. But when the pain of life hits, we are oh, so quick to go running to Him. It reminds me of a little kid on the playground exploring the equipment for the first time. Each moment he grows in courage but constantly looks back for dad. Eventually he will venture too far and take a fall and what is his immediate reaction? To pick himself up and go running back to the safety of his dad. To the safe and secure arms of his father. Sometimes it’s the falls in our life that bring about the pain that causes us to go running back to Him. What a comfort to know that no matter how far we stray and how many times we fall, that He is always nearby with arms wide open.
This morning we take a look at Genesis chapter 2 and the small, tiny event of God creating man and woman. (I jest) In chapter one God created the world to setup for this event, the creation of man and woman to inhabit it. But before I even got to that massive event, I found my topic for the day:
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”
Rest. I like the idea that God rested. Does God need rest. Nope. Does God need to rest for a whole day? Nope. Was God going to football game? Nope. Did he ask for the day off to catch up on sleep? Nope. Why rest? He was done, it was perfect and He stopped to enjoy it. We saw yesterday in Genesis 1 that all that He had created in six days was “very good”. He was finished. It took God 6 days to create the world and all that was in it and on the seventh He took some time off to enjoy and admire His work. To rest.
It makes me wonder what the world thinks of this kind of rest today. True rest. I think we’ve literally lost this translation of rest, what it really means here in chapter 2. I think today if you were to ask most people what rest means they would say sleep. Rest is going to sleep when you get so tired you can’t stand up. This is not the rest that God enjoyed.
Rest is defined as “to cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength.” I think even this definition misses the mark of how God rested in chapter 2. What God had made was perfect and He sat back and allowed himself time to admire it. Time for a confession.
For those of you that know me well you know I have a very rare and curious affliction. One that is indeed seen by many as the habits of a madman. I love to clean, wax and detail cars. Yep, it’s true, I’m a freak. I actually enjoy cleaning cars until they gleam in the afternoon sun. I polish, I wax and I rub on the paint until it is as clean and refracts as much light as it possibly can. You see the smoother the surface, the more it refracts light rays and therefore the more it shines. A shiny car is a clean, smooth car free of imperfections. When I clean a car part of the enjoyment is seeing the before and after. It started out dull, slightly oxidized and lacked luster. But after hours of elbow grease, polishes and quality carnauba waxes, the car will look almost as new. When the work is done, I step back to enjoy the work that I have done. Sometimes I will even drag a chair out into the garage and just sit. Sit and admire the shape of the car and the time I have just spent bonding with it’s enticing curves and muscular lines. It’s a sickness, I know, but the rest from the completed work is possibly my favorite part of the process.
How much time do we spend today truly resting? The lack of true rest in our society today is a plague. And one I think satan uses to his great advantage. We are a busy people. Rush off to work and school, rush to do the errands, rush the kids to soccer or baseball practice. Rush home, rush through dinner, rush through our TV shows by skipping the commercials and then rush off to bed to get a little sleep before rising up to do it all over again. As a result, we are a sleep deprived nation with 1 in 3 US adults getting less than 7 hours of sleep per night. So with 24 hours in the day and most adults sleeping less than 7, what are Americans doing with the other 17 to 18 hours? Resting? Not even close.
We wear our busyness as a badge of honor. In our society today the best thing you can tell someone is how busy you are. It shows that you are in demand. Important. The world and the people in it need you. Or is this something that we have created to develop self-importance? Why do we really need to be that busy? Most people I interact with are busy for selfish reasons and most revolve around money. Gotta work man. Gotta make money. But why the huge need for money? Once again, through my interactions with people, I see it is in large part due to their inability to handle and control money. You see, money is a tool and it must be used properly. If not, it will use you...control you. Massive amounts of home debt, credit card debt, car loans and student loans have changed a “free America” into on that is bound but without chains. We work like crazy to pay our debts. Dave Ramsey was quoted as saying, “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t know.” So true.
So back to rest. True rest. Resting to enjoy the good works that you have done. Good works for God. What? Who snuck God in there? You see if you really want to rest it has to come from God. We can sleep all we want but we can’t truly rest without God. He offers true rest. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matt 11:28
As you go through your day and your week, I challenge you to think deeply about what it means to rest in God. To hear His voice, to act in obedience, to perform His will. And when your done with His work, to rest, relax and look at His goodness that He produced through your hands. To rest in God and rest in what He has done. God took the whole seventh day to rest and admire His perfect work. Take a day this week and simply sit back, rest and enjoy God and all that He has done. Take a day off, tell em' Dan said so.
God bless you and God bless your rest in Him this week.
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