It is common to man to think of rest as purely physical.  Some folks will think of emotional rest after a period of turmoil, but for the most part rest is thought of as physical.  Spiritual rest is a topic that has been heavy on my heart for many months and two passages I always think of are Psalm 46:10 and Matthew 11:28-29.  As I have been pondering what these two passages mean at their core, I received some insight in regards to how scripture defines rest.  I had not considered that rest was both passive and active, but understanding this helped me clarify the two passages above.  Psalm 46:10, to cease striving and know that I am God (NASB) is a verse hanging by my front door and I read every time I leave my home.

 For me, it is a reminder that God is with me, to talk, to protect, to engage, to lead me to do His will. I am not speaking of the intellectual knowledge that God is always watching, but the application of spiritual knowledge that God is faithfully with us to be in constant communion with Him.  I love the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38 – 42 because it illustrates habits that are typical of most of us.  How many of us live life daily by our checklist of things to “get done!”  In Luke 10, it says “Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word.”  That is a picture of true rest, to sit with Jesus and listen to His word.  As we read, we see that the scripture says that Martha was distracted “doing stuff” and complained that her sister Mary was not helping her “get stuff done.”  I love the response Jesus gives: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her. (Luke 10:41 – 42).  Jesus was simply saying you are worried and bothered about things that ultimately don’t matter and I just want you to spend time with me.  When you consider that Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening, she is demonstrating a joyful submission as a child of God.  She wasn’t worried like Martha, she was just resting in the presence of Jesus.  I believe that we all have to decide in our faith if we are going to be a Mary or a Martha because I believe that is the difference between the fruitful and non-fruitful branches in John 15.  We have a tendency in Christianity to “do ministry” but becoming like Jesus is about your attitude.  When you look at the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control, this is not a to do list, this is attitude which is really the Aroma of our Hearts.

Casting Crowns has a song that I love called ‘Just be Held’ with a great line that capture the essence of this truth: “when your tired of fighting, chained by your control, there is freedom in surrender, lay it down and let it go…stop holding on and just be held.”  To let go in a sense, but not to throw in the towel, more to concede that your strength is not enough and you need the strength of God who wants to fight for you if you will get out of the way.  Exodus 14:14 says “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.”  One of my favorite verses,but for the first time, I recognized the application of this verse in my life.  It makes people uncomfortable when God asks you to do unconventional things, but it was through that process that I would find rest.  Rest is one of the greatest gifts of God and it is also one of the best tools we have to fight the spiritual battle that every believer is engaged in.  This is a victory awaiting every believer if we will be willing to get uncomfortable.  We have to be willing to trade the worldly comforts of conventional wisdom, doing what everyone agrees with, for the Rest of God.  You may feel like you are walking alone, but the truth is that we are never alone if we walk with God and our obedience to God’s calling to trust Him will be rewarded with the peace of Christ that is beyond human understanding (Philippians 4:6-7).

In Matthew 11:28-29, Jesus spoke about rest and invited us to simply come to Him to find rest for my soul. This rest is more active because it is based entirely on the result of the finished work of God. To truly have faith that all things are under His control and to have His peace in knowing that when He said “it is finished”, it was actually finished. There is great peace and rest in that reality because it gives us a proper perspective on this life.  If we consider how we spend our time, how we spend our money, things we are anxious about, or fret about, we realize that we have a lot of self-imposed anxiety trying to make every aspect of this life perfect.  The truth is that we live in a fallen world with other sinners and have our own sin, all while engaged with spiritual enemies that seek to take our focus off of God (1 Peter 5:8; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, 2 Corinthians 11:14-15).  The truth is that we find rest in our identity in Christ and by His finished work on the cross, His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.  Perhaps that sounds too easy and we want to add to it, but scripture warns us not to add to it (2 John 1:8-9).  The truth is that without adherence to the biblical truth of our spiritual realities, we will never have lasting peace apart from obedience to Christ!  This is why scripture tells us to guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23), take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5), beware of deceptive philosophies (Colossians 2:8), have sound doctrine (1 Timothy 4:6) and be diligent that we do not stray from biblical truth by surrounding ourselves with people who tell us what we want hear (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

To understand that rest is both for now and the future is vitally important for the Christian for several reasons. The finished work of Christ gives us rest positionally for eternity.  What that means to us is that once we are born-again, sealed with the Holy Spirit, we are justified before God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ and nothing can change that fact.  You can live bold and confident in this world knowing that it only gets better from here.  For many, this world is the best life they will ever have, but for the Christian, we are just passing through on our way home.  Though we are in the flesh, through Christ, we enter into daily rest now, in this body, on this planet.  Though there is a conflict between the flesh and the spirit and though Jesus tells us that in this world we will have trouble (John 14:27), He also invites all who labor and are heavy-laden to come to Him to find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28-29).  He has given us a Counselor, a Helper inside us to guide us (John 16), to testify with our spirit that we are truly children of God (Romans 8:16) and to intercede for us in prayer because we don’t know what we ought to pray (Romans 8:26). These fundamental truths of our faith provide great confidence to all that God is doing and has done to provide us with rest for our souls.