A Fresh Start

 Do you ever feel like life came with a factory reset button? Like if you made a mistake that came with consequences you didn’t see coming, wouldn’t you like to be able to have a redo? Or you have fallen into a mindless cycle that you can’t get out of and need a fresh perspective? Or maybe you just need to refresh the page of your mind, clear it of junk, and start with a blank page?

Lately, have been going non-stop and haven’t taken time to recharge my battery. I have been so busy doing “things” that I haven’t taken time to rest. There have been times of sleep deprivation, neglect of physical health, mental, and spiritual health - because I think I can do it all my own. I haven’t spent time to reflect or process what is happening around me and where God is working.  I have missed those “divine appointments” with random people as I rush from one thing to another. But most of all, I miss spending quality time with Jesus. Only with Him have I been able to experience true rest – not just the absence of work, but shameless peace. I have been really convicted of not taking time to refresh and reset my priorities. I have asked myself: What does it actually mean to rest? I can sit around my house all day and binge on Netflix and still not feel rested. I can sleep for as long as I want still not feel rested…

Any doctor will tell you the importance of physical rest and that our bodies need it to function properly. Anyone who has pulled an all-nighter studying for a paper and had to take an exam the next day will tell you lack of sleep does not help productivity. However, could there be a difference between physical rest and spiritual rest?  The writer of Hebrews thinks so.

Hebrews chapter 4 differentiates between physical rest and redemptive rest:
"The nation of Israel, in the Old Testament, provoked the Lord to anger by disobeying – therefore they were not permitted to enter God’s rest."

In this passage, rest is referred to the Promise Land. God brought this nation out of slavery in Egypt so that they would be free to worship and enjoy Him. However, they started worshiping other things rather than God, turned their hearts away from Him. Of course, this made God angry and he sent them wandering around the desert for 40 years as a result of their decisions. 

According to John MacArthur, “the application of this picture is to an individual’s spiritual rest in the Lord, which has precedent in the Old Testament. At salvation, every believer enters true rest, the realm of spiritual promise, never again laboring to achieve through personal effort a righteousness that pleases God. The Lord wanted both kinds of rest for that generation which was delivered from Egypt.” 

When God created the world and it’s order, He created rest. In Genesis chapter 2 God finished all the work He had done and rested. He blessed the seventh day and made it holy – different than all the others. It’s not as if He needed rest (after all, He SPOKE the world into motion), but modeled the new created order.

There are still times when we need both kinds of rest, not just sleep. Rest was made to be a blessing to man “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” as Jesus reminds his followers when they were accused of doing “work” on a holy day (Mark 2:27). To be holy means to be “set apart” or “different” from the mainstream. The culture of humanity today is driven by work and performance. We are taught at a young age that if you perform well, you will receive worth. During potty training for toddlers, parents give their kids a reward for a job well done. As young kids play sports, now days they receive a reward for “participating” (don’t get me started…). The next 12 years (or more) of academics, students are pressured to perform well so they can receive good grades, so that they can get into the top universities, so that they can perform well at their job, and... you get the picture. What happens when you can’t preform up to those expectations? Life seems hopeless.  

In a world that is driven by work and performance, it is easy to feel inadequate. Often times, I feel like I fall short on my work, therefore I am not valuable to others. There are always more things to do, more people to serve, more people to listen to, and more energy needed to accomplish them all. It is a never ending “rat race”. The world around me likes to throw shame for not keeping up, but that’s ot how it was created. But God reminds me that my worth is not based on my performance. (See my last article “You Say…”)  Praise God that I can rest in the fact that I am accepted, loved, and valuable just for being me based on what Jesus did on the cross. By believing and accepting Jesus’ gift of life to me I can now live in freedom!

Okay, I know there is a difference from physical rest and redemptive rest. But what does that look like practically? Reset the pace of your life and take a day to practice redemptive rest. I am still learning what that looks like... 

Sometimes I just go for a long walk in the cool of the evening or chase the sunset. 

Sometimes I curl up on the couch and read an encouraging book.

·     Sometimes I journal ideas I am processing (a lot of my blog articles come out of journaling!). Sometimes I go explore a new area of the city or a new coffee shop.

·     Sometimes I sleep in and stay in my PJ’s allllllllll day.

·     Everyday I strive to read something in scripture and reflect on it throughout the day.

·     Everyday I thank God for waking me up this morning and for giving me purpose.

·     Everyday I aim to list off things I am thankful for instead of presenting a long list of things I still want.

·     Everyday I ask God to reset my priorities to make Him first in my life and my “work” last. After all, I am first called to Him, then what I do flows out of that!

I am reminded of Romans 12:1-2 which commands “do not conform to the pattern [set by] this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” The Message Bible phrases it this way:

“Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”*

Let God produce a healthy work/rest cycle in your life! Discover and fall in love with Jesus, the more time you spend with Him, the more time you want to give Him.

*Just a note that the Message Bible “is a highly idiomatic translation, using contemporary slang from the US rather than a more neutral International English, and it falls on the extreme dynamic end of the dynamic and formal equivalence spectrum.”