Routed in Prayer: A Devotional for Those Starting New JobsSample

Day 13: Leave the rest to God

Express Route

How do we start habits of good rest as we begin working life? The Bible is clear that taking a sabbath – time away from work to recalibrate and focus on God – is a key part of discipleship. Learning to trust God and find our true rest in Him in the midst of change is difficult, but invaluable. Psalm 62 reminds us to find our rest in God – slowly, steadily, and purposefully.

Scenic Route

Read: Psalm 62 

Reflect: As you come to the end of the first two weeks in a new job, how are you feeling? Excited? Energised? Tired? Overwhelmed? Confused? Raring to go? All of the above? 

That’s understandable. Change – and especially big life changes like new jobs and new homes and new cities – can leave us very tired.

So, what might it look like to introduce good rhythms of rest into your new working life? The Bible is clear that sabbath – weekly rest – is an integral part of being human. It’s in this rest that we can recalibrate ourselves, realign our priorities, and refocus our minds.  

Psalm 62 acknowledges that it’s only in God that we can find our true rest. It also makes clear, however, that you don’t have to be in a place of inner peace or stillness to seek rest in God. We can express our anxiety, embrace its weight, and entrust it to God, knowing that in Him we find our rest, despite any madness that may surround us.  

In verse 8, the psalmist reminds the reader to trust God ‘at all times’. There are times in everyone’s life when it is tempting not to trust God… when things feel out of control, when that urgent late-night email comes in, and especially when things are going right and we start to get a little arrogant as we pursue self-sufficiency. Yet it’s at precisely those moments that it’s most important to do so.  

When we trust in God – amid change and newness, success and failure, uncertainty and half-finished plans – we find true and ultimate rest. As Augustine wrote in his seminal work Confessions, ‘you have made us for yourself, O God, and our souls are restless until they find their rest in you’.  

Pray: Today, spend some time merely resting in God. No prayers, petitions, gratitude, or reflection: just rest in the presence of God. You might find it helpful to use a centring word or phrase like ‘Father God’ or ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me’ that you can come back to when you feel your mind wandering.