His life was fraying at the edges. His emotions were stretched and his soul was brittle. He felt like a fence that could topple over with one small push. He didn’t just need a break for a moment. No amount of leisure time or holiday would fix the issue; he needed rest for his soul and restoration for his spirit.
We can all get to that point. The day-to-day responsibilities of work, caring, studying, and serving can tire us out. Add in a troubling visit to the doctors, a family crisis or a church dispute, and our need for rest goes beyond what a leisurely long weekend can fix. Physical tiredness is one thing, but sometimes our very soul feels weary, fragile and spent. We’re not a car in need of fuel; we’re a beat-up car in need of restoration.
That’s what the person mentioned above needed. This isn’t some imagined person, this is David—King David. The renowned King who ruled for forty years needed a rest (2 Samuel 5:5, 1 Chronicles 14:17). And rest is what he found, or rather, rest is what he received. Despite the whirlwind he found himself in, he really could exclaim, “Truly my soul finds rest in God” (Psalm 62:1).
In this series, we’re going to explore the Bible’s teaching about rest to discover how David could find true rest despite his circumstances. Each of us may have different approaches to rest. Some of us might work to rest, and others might rest to work. We might think rest is something for one day of the week or perhaps for an annual holiday or something to look forward to when we start withdrawing our super.
As we receive the Bible’s teaching and reflect on this theme of rest, we’ll see that God’s gift of rest promises much more than what any of the above can provide. God’s gift of rest isn’t just about refuelling us for work or providing us with some downtime; God’s gift of rest goes far deeper. This rest stretches back into the creation of the world—and even further back than that—and pushes beyond into the new heavens and the new earth. The Bible speaks of rest in the beginning and rest at the beginning of everything new (Genesis 2:2, Revelation 14:13).
Asking God for Rest
Before we dive in to see what the Bible says, there’s one important thing to notice about the rest of God: it doesn’t take much effort to experience it. It’s very easy to turn ‘resting’ into just one other item on our packed to-do list. The very act of resting can become something that (ironically) we don’t have the energy to do. Some ‘time away’ sounds lovely in principle, but actually doing it can feel like too much effort when our energy is already spent.
The good news is that experiencing the rest of God doesn’t take much effort from us. There are certainly good habits we can form, but true, lasting rest is a gift from God that meets us beyond our circumstances and efforts. In Psalm 62, David just does one simple thing: he cries out to God. He tells his soul to find rest in God and he encourages us to “pour out our hearts to God” because “God is our refuge” (Psalm 62:8).
So as we begin, if you’re feeling weary, if you’re weighed down, know that the Lord is inviting us to go to Him and cry out. You can never be beyond the scope of God’s rest. Experiencing His rest doesn’t involve much effort. We don’t have to make a plan or form healthy habits before we can go to Him. We don’t have to work hard and complete our tasks before we can rest. Not at all. Christ is inviting us to come to Him with our weariness and burdens and know rest. As He said in those wonderful words: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
Respond: Let’s respond to His invitation. As David did, let’s call out to God and ask that our souls would know God’s rest—after all, He’s already inviting us to it.
Next article – What Rest Is: Stop and Smell the Roses
Stephen Unwin is a writer and editor with Our Daily Bread Ministries. He has degrees in sound engineering and theology and is currently studying for a PhD on the theology of gift and gratitude. He’s married to Katy and they live in Melbourne, Australia.
