by Elizabeth | Sep 29, 2020 | Devotional
The Rest of Restoration: A Meditation for Crisis
Dear Friends, this week I share another excerpt from my newest devotional for people who have experienced “crisis” —”radically life-altering circumstances.” If you enjoy this, please be sure to share and check out the entire devotional, From Recovery to Restoration: 60 Meditations for Finding Peace & Hope in Crisis. It was written for times such as these.
The Rest of Restoration
And on the seventh day God finished
all the work that he had done, and
he rested on the seventh day from
all his work that he had done.
GENESIS 2:2, ESV
THE FIRST TIME I recovered from shoulder surgery, I was blindsided by the fatigue. My limbs hung limp, heavy and sluggish; my nerves were frenzied by pain. Restful sleep eluded me. Meanwhile, the items on my to-do list stacked up in direct proportion to my incapacitation. Recovery fatigue set in; what I desperately needed was rest.
On the seventh day of creation, after God had placed the finishing touches on his masterpiece — his image-bearers, he rested (Genesis 2:2). God rested because his work, his plan, his purpose, was fully accomplished. The Lord rested as only the ruler of the cosmos can rest.
The Lord designed his image-bearers for rest and called them to receive this gift: “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work…” (Deuteronomy 5:12-14). The Lord knew that we needed rest; the Lord knew that to experience this rest, we would need to trust him completely.
What are you to do, though, when the housework piles up but you can’t lift your arm after shoulder surgery? When soggy carpets need to be stripped before mold sets in after the flood? When sleep won’t come because you’re worried about the child support check? Surely you can’t just do nothing?
God set a Sabbath rhythm: to work and to rest, to work and to rest. We may not be able to do the housework, but we can ask for help from others, and we can rest in receiving. We can strip the carpets, but then we must rest from that work. And as far as the child support check, there is a time to pursue and a time to pray, there is a time to trust, and a time to wait on God’s provision.
In addition to physical, mental, and emotional rest, we desperately need the rest of restoration provided by Jesus. As Richard D. Phillips explains, “If you have put your faith in this saving God, if you have trusted his gospel in Jesus Christ, you now can rest…. You can face the prospect of loss in this life, of suffering, and even of death, for ours is the God of the Sabbath, who established his purposes forever from the beginning. Through faith in him you enter into his rest.”24
Dear friend, in this season of weight and weariness, hear the call of the One who has bought with his life the rest you crave.Come to Jesus, who invites you to the rest of restoration.
PRAYER
Father, God,
Thank you for your Sabbath rest, and thank you for the ultimate rest granted in Jesus. Help us to come to you for every kind of rest we need in our recovery.
AMEN.
FURTHER ENCOURAGEMENT
• Read Genesis 2:1-3; Exodus 20:8-11; Hebrews 4:9-10.
• Listen to “Good to Me” by Audrey Assad.
FOR REFLECTION
In what ways are you struggling with the need for rest or the inability to rest? Write a short letter to God about what things you need to entrust to him so you can gain needed rest.
by Elizabeth | Jan 27, 2014 | Learning Story
Today, as I conclude this short series on spiritual graces, I invite you to sit with me and hear God’s invitation to delight: rest.
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Rest for some is playing with God in the sand.
It sounds so kind, so gentle, so — well, restful.
Come to me…
all who labor
and are heavy-laden…
[are you identifying with this yet?]
and I will give you rest.
- It is a lullaby sung over a child in warm footie pajamas.
- It is a friend waving to us from across the street, inviting us to come have coffee.
- It is a gold-embossed invitation from the prince to the coronation ball.
Jesus, the lover of our souls, beckons us, and what I’m wondering is why, with an invitation like this — we resist rest.
Rest, menuach, according to the Hebrew, expresses more than just an absence of activity. Its purpose is to celebrate life and joy, to languish in the peace God lavishes, to imagine the days to come when there will be no more tears.
For Christians, it is a rich feast to remember that Christ has loved us and offered the perfect sacrifice that allows us to cease striving and know that all is well. It is a taste of the feast to come, when we will gather around a table in peace with those we’ve loved and hated in life, finally reconciled, finally restored.
So why don’t we rest? So many reasons, but today let’s just consider one:
Rosie-dog dares to risk rest — with frequency:-)!
It’s too risky.
- What if we lie down but can’t go to sleep?
- What if we dress up for the ball and the Prince ignores us?
- What if Jesus was waving to someone else?
He couldn’t have meant me. He couldn’t really mean I can stop laboring.
- I know I need to have better quiet times for God to want to spend time with me.
- If Jesus really knew who I am, he’d never ask me to the ball.
- And if I go for coffee, it will be tense because I’m so disappointed in God right now.
Isn’t it better to just keep moving, stirring the noise, in case there is no song to be heard in the silence of rest?
It’s risky. Really, who has that kind of gumption?
Not me.
But there’s some good news here. You knew there had to be, right?
Here’s a little interesting tidbit. The word in the Greek literally means to “cause to rest.” Jesus isn’t just offering us rest. He’s making us rest. Because he knows our hearts. He knows we struggle with sin, and fear, and shame, and pride. He knows we don’t think we deserve a break unless we’ve earned it. And he knows we’ll never earn it. That’s why he died. For our sin. So we could rest — from the guilt, the sin, the shame.
Stop. Do you hear him? He’s singing to you.
Come to me. All you who labor. [Do you labor?]
All who are heavy-laden [What burdens, doubts, fears, shame are you carrying?].
I have made it possible for you to rest.
I will bring you to the ball because you can’t bring yourself.
Now for the dare:
Step away from the computer. Go somewhere or stay right where you are. Do you hear the singing? Do you see the couple dancing? Will you go sit with Jesus? It’s terrifying, but it’s true. God delights in you, and Jesus is causing you to rest in that.
by Elizabeth | Sep 20, 2011 | Learning Story
Check out this treasure on Sabbath
We are driven because our work brings us power and pride that dulls our deeper desire for delight.
We are far more practiced and comfortable with work than play. We are far better at handling difficulties than joy. When faced with a problem, we can jump into it or avoid it; we can use our skills or resources to manage it. But what do we do with joy? We can only receive it and allow it to shimmer, settle, and in due season, depart; leaving us alive and happy but desiring to hold on to what can’t be grasped or controlled.
Joy is lighter than sorrow and escapes our grasp with a fairylike, ephemeral adieu. Sorrow settles in like a 280-pound boar that has no intention of ever departing. One calls us to action and the other to grace. Which is easier: to work for your salvation with self-earned power of self-righteousness or to receive what is not deserved or owed, but freely given and fully humbling?”
Why not take two — or better yet, ten? Ten minutes of quiet — right now before you chicken out (or I — I always try to complete my own assignments:). Set your phone on silent; set your timer to go off. Close your eyes or keep them open. Remember, dream, enjoy — something — for surely if you are breathing, there is some single joy to contemplate. (I apologize for the preachy tone — it’s to myself:). P.S. This is going to totally throw my schedule off — just think — 10 minutes late for the rest of the day!
by Elizabeth | Jan 17, 2010 | Learning Story
“So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” Gen. 2:3
(If you’ve missed previous weeks, I am now taking sabbatical on Sundays from posting. Check back tomorrow for some Monday encouragement.)
![In what do you place your confidence?
But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. Jeremiah 17:7
All-Wise God,
Forgive us for placing our confidence
or finding our security and significance
in any number of idols that are not you—
work, money, looks, family,
friends, food, drink,
health, ministry, etc.
Some of us waver between confidence and self-doubt.
Forgive us for our pride and our self-contempt,
for both spring from the same root—
a failure to trust in you alone,
an inability to see or believe
that you are trustworthy.
Indeed, you work in all things,
not some things,
every last detail of our lives,
not just a few unimportant ones,
for the good of those who love you,
to fulfill your wonderful and wise plan,
your redeeming purpose in our lives (See Romans 8:28).
Even this very minute,
even in the dark and tortuous roads of our journey,
you are working beauty and redemption
by your transforming grace.
Right now, we give our supreme confidence
and/or our self-doubt
in the following areas to you:
work: [name ways you need to trust the Lord]
Relationships: [name ways you need to trust the Lord]
Health: [name ways you need to trust the Lord]
Ministry: [name ways you need to trust the Lord]
Other: [name ways you need to trust the Lord]
In Jesus’s trustworthy name we pray. Amen.
Read Jeremiah 17:5-8; Romans 8:28-39.
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