Technicolor Womanنموونە

Weapon of Rest

“Rest is a weapon given to us by God; The enemy hates it because he wants you stressed and occupied.” Elisabeth Elliot

“If the devil cannot make us bad, he will make us busy.” Corrie Ten Boom

We live in a society where exhaustion is like a status symbol—that being busy and stressed out is something to wave around like a prize.

If you find it hard to rest . . .

If you can’t nap without feeling guilty . . .

If your schedule, mind, body, and heart are overloaded . . .

. . . then this one is for you.

Rest is a weapon.

Rest is also a gift to receive. It’s not something you earn after you get x, y, and z done. Let’s be honest. Is the work ever done?

I think it is a tricky, slippery slope that the enemy loves to just spin us around and keep us stressed and occupied so we can’t enter into rest and, therefore, into deep receiving and deep outpouring.

Rest isn’t for a specific personality type, either. I’ve heard it said in very defensive tones, “Well, that’s great for you, but not everyone has the capacity to just relax.”

I have been this person. I used to run around and around, burning myself out.

We live in a consumeristic more, more, more mentality, but the more can make us explode.

So many things block us from entering rest. Pride can keep us working harder than anyone and loving to shove it in people’s faces (as you take antacids).

Fear can keep us burning the candle on both ends because our worth is wrapped up in doing—to hopefully somehow feel enough.

Guilt can even block rest (all the mamas just waved their hands). So many things get left undone if we rest, but isn’t that better than . . . well . . . personally becoming undone if we don’t rest?

There is a root system that continually says push, push, push when we need to stop.

God didn’t make us robots; He made us humans. God is sovereign and in control, and whether we are aware or not, we are not. Rest allows us to fall into this understanding in a tangible way.

There are so many different types of rest needed. Rest in a lot of therapeutic contexts talks about time away, not overextending yourself to be helping everyone else, being unproductive, connecting to art and nature, solitude, a break from responsibility, stillness, safe spaces, and alone time at home.

These are very beneficial, but not if your soul is unrested or unrestful.

This is why me-time facials can still leave you spinning. They don’t give you the same rest as deep soul rest.

Rest isn’t checking out; it is checking in.

The foundation for biblical rest is first established in the Creation account.

The first mention of rest is in Genesis 2. We find two different Hebrew words for rest:

“So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested [sabbat] from all his work that he had done in creation” (Genesis 2:3, ESV).

The first word for rest, sabbat, literally means “to stop,” and the first depiction is God himself stopping in His task of creation. A little further into the story, we see another Hebrew word for rest, nuakh, which can be understood as “to abide or rest in.”

The Lord God took the man and ‘rested him’ [nuakh] into the garden of Eden to work it and keep it (Genesis 2:15).

In Genesis 2, where we come to understand the purposes of creation, we already have a picture of what it means biblically to rest: to stop and to abide.

In the Garden of Eden, there was rest as God intended. Adam and Eve were at rest with each other and the world, in their work and in the presence of God. But as we all know, this Sabbath rest did not last. Adam and Eve rejected the rest God had offered and chose instead to make their own way, leading to disastrous results. The remainder of the Bible is the story of God’s faithfulness to return us to the rest of Eden.

This changes what rest really is. Rest isn’t just meager relaxation.

This means the Sabbath—the stopping—we rest (nuakh), which means something nearer to ‘settling in’ to a place than it does to sleeping or chain-smoking Netflix.

This rest is also different than a slumbering spirit that wants to check out and overindulge in sleep, becoming lethargic.

We settle into stopping by enjoying the order our hands have created the other six days of the week. It all becomes enough, finished, and settled.

We think that rest is passive, but, really, rest is received.

Sabbath means so much when you see that the God of the universe who made it all . . . stopped.

God himself entered into rest.

“For anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:10-11).

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul” (Psalm 23:1-3a).

Did you know that cows and sheep can eat themselves to death? They can graze in the abundance of green pastures until they literally kill themselves.

On the flip side, there is nothing better than seeing cows or sheep graze to the point of contentment—when they lay themselves down in the pasture in utter bliss and satisfaction.

If the devil cannot make us bad, he will make us busy. Corrie Ten Boom

Jesus, our Good Shepherd. He MAKES US LIE DOWN, to digest, to rest in contentment. Rest gets us digesting the abundance so that we don’t explode.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible on rest, which is super relatable, is about Elijah.

Elijah, after displaying insane courage, challenged all the prophets of Baal at the time. The prophets of Baal were really trying to show off and call down fire. They were cutting themselves, screaming, and making a scene—to no avail.

Elijah, knowing and proving a point that their “god” was powerless, made a sacrifice of a bull. Not only that, but he also soaked it and flooded it in water—not just once, but three times. He told the prophets of Baal that the one true God would send down fire to burn it up—which He did.

After this, all of the prophets of Baal were shocked and amazed. They were killed. What an insane sight!

Now, Elijah was wanted by Ahab and evil Jezebel. Elijah, the one who just called down fire and killed every prophet of Baal, was terrified and on the run. He ran away and found himself under a bush, praying for the Lord to kill him—that he had had enough. It was all too much.

After this, Elijah lay down and fell asleep.

An angel came and touched him and said, “Get up and eat” (1 Kings 19:5).

This should feel really comforting. The Lord knows we are flesh. Even after insane “calling down of fire” and a Kingdom victory, has anyone else felt depressed, needing a nap and a snack?

“In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8).

“Rest is a weapon, a sword in your hand that puts anxiety, worry, and fear to death.” Graham Cooke

Rest, this settling in, gives us strength and moves in the opposite spirit of fear, anxiety, and control.

“Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge” (Psalm 62:5-8).

Jesus was so kind to reiterate this in Matthew 6:26 in His “do not worry” passages. “‘Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life?’” (Matthew 6:26-27).

Jesus, who slept in the middle of the storm in the account in Matthew 8:23-27, really modeled for us what is possible. He was showing that He is above the winds and the waves, and we can rest in unrestful circumstances with Him—knowing He is our rock, the fortress, and our refuge we run into.

Jesus also understood demands and exhaustion when He put on flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

“The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.’ For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat” (Mark 6:30-31, CSB).

After all their doing and pouring out, they were to go to a remote place and rest and to finally eat.

This feels so relatable.

Depletion is real. After “doing” and so much output, it is vital to rest.

You even see it modeled in nature. Soil, if used over and over again for planting, is depleted from nutrients that are vital for vegetables to grow. This is why farmers let the ground rest. It helps restore the soil’s nutrient balance. Otherwise, it will become infertile and be unable to grow anything.

We are much like this soil. We, too, have to rest.

“I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint” (Jeremiah 31:25).

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. . . . Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:28,30-31).

He never grows tired or weary. He offers us His strength when our hope is in Him and not our strength—or even what we can do.

I pray today you enter into His rest and abide in Him.

I pray anything hindering and getting in the way of your rest would be healed, removed, and realigned.

I pray you settle into His completeness and His finished work.

I pray you are satisfied and refreshed by the Spirit of God.

I pray you pick up this weapon of rest and walk in strength and courage in your life.