Rest Revisited
Not long ago, we talked about living restfully (if you missed it, go HERE). Have you tried to practice rest? If so, what was your experience?
Rest is a lot more difficult than it sounds. It is, to date, the hardest thing I’m learning to do (and I’ve done a lot of hard things in my time!). The reasons are myriad. Perhaps you and I share some of them:
Have you thought about why it is so hard to rest? I mean, what’s behind our inability to slow down, to relax our minds and bodies? And what does rest have to do with our theology?
One Caveat
Before we go any further, I want to clarify that rest, like any other discipline, takes practice. I would recommend that you start with five minutes of uninterrupted quiet time alone, giving yourself permission to sit still and observe your body’s and mind’s response. Slow down your breathing with long inhales and exhales, noticing how it makes you feel. Do this each day (without being hard on yourself if you skip a day), and increase your time by five more minutes as you’re able. Once you get used to this productive exercise and make space for it in your routine, you can explore ways you can engage in restful activity (like coloring while meditating) without heightening anxiety.
Rest After Trauma
Another point I’d like to clarify is, for the 30% or more of you readers who are trauma survivors, rest may be an enigma (temporarily). The hypervigilant brain patterns that result from hijacked emotions must be intentionally addressed. In other words, though you are safe now, your brain may still be overfunctioning – too busy to allow you to turn it off, at least at first. You may need to use your five minutes of rest per day to do “grounding” exercises. The goal is to “manually” direct your brain to relax. Here are a few ideas:
Resting is Righteous Behavior
Hebrews 4:1-3 was written to believers who needed encouragement in this area of resting from “works”. Before we dismiss this passage (as if it were directed to “other people” who were “working for salvation”), consider how timely it is for us:
God, through Jesus, has accomplished everything that could ever be eternally important! Everything else is detail. We get all bent out of shape about the temporal things going on around us, as if we were responsible for holding the world on our own shoulders. Honestly, if we missed a day of our contrived “duties”, would it matter ten years from now? Five? One?
How much are we depending on ourselves, when nothing can be done without Jesus? Resting is an act of worship (literally, ‘ascribing worth to God’) by submitting ourselves and our activities to Him.
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:1-2
What Do We Really Believe About God?
Our inability to rest could be pointing to false beliefs about God. Consider this an opportunity to explore your heart, make any necessary changes (repent), and grow into Christ’s image through holy rest.
False Belief #1: God Is Not In Control; We Are
Our pride tempts us to take credit for what God does. Our striving (for survival, for attention, for dollars, for approval, for control, for status) is addictive (and idolatrous): it makes us feel important. Can you see how this thinking is antithetical to who we really are? We are limited, dependent creatures who have no idea of our hair count or how many days we have left, and no control over growing taller or becoming shorter. Every breath we draw is a miracle from God, and yet we work, work, work, thinking it’s up to us to carve out a life for ourselves or to control outcomes.
May I suggest that we have an arrogance problem and control issues? Deep down, we’re all trying to work our way through life. We believe it’s all about us: “If it’s to be, it’s up to me!” I’m not discounting our responsibility to obey God in what He’s calling us to do, but are we working hard in order to take credit for our accomplishments or to engineer outcomes that suit us? That’s exactly what’s killing us. Working doesn’t work. Think about it – how has working “harder” gotten you to a place of rest? Maybe it’s gotten you to retirement, but what about rest? And how has working gotten you closer to God?
False Belief #2: God Is Not Good
I wonder if our insecure nature is driving our theology (what we believe about God). We say we believe He is all-powerful, that He loves us, that He protects us – evidence of His goodness. We’ve witnessed His deliverance on multiple occasions. We’ve given testimony to His provision and protection. We know He’s there, watching over us. We’ve seen Him answer our prayers. But do our behaviors and attitudes reflect what we say we believe? Or do we still question His goodness, deciding to spring into action to take care of things ourselves, as if He doesn’t have our best interest at heart?
False Belief #3: Rest Doesn’t Accomplish Anything
Jesus offers us productive rest founded upon the belief that life isn’t up to us, nor is it about us. Our life is hidden with Christ – He has done all the important work necessary to keep our hearts from striving. We are what we were made to be: earthen “pots” capable of nothing without Him. We can take credit for nothing because He is our source, and all outcomes are up to Him! Our rest is productive because it reflects dependence on God. When we rest, we acknowledge that we are created, limited, dependent beings. We renew and refresh our bodies, minds, emotions, and souls.
Practicing Truth in Restfulness
Because we live in a fallen world, we suffer under the second law of thermodynamics: increasing entropy. We naturally tend toward decay or chaos. Left to ourselves, our bodies, thoughts, emotions, and spirits all spiral downward. We all “turn to our own way”. When we deny ourselves rest, we are headed for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual depletion. If, however, we are led by the Holy Spirit, we move toward renewal. Intentional rest with God accomplishes peace, goodness, freedom, and a positive perspective.
Our greatest need is to know God better. It’s impossible to develop our individual relationship with Him without practicing intentional rest in Him. The truth is, we cannot accomplish anything eternal in our own strength; we must rely on and cooperate with God. To live an integrated life is to act out what we say we believe: to be truthful with ourselves and our reality.
“Heavenly Father, teach me the value of resting in Your Presence, for relying on You as my source, and depending on You for outcomes. Help me cooperate with Your Holy Spirit in developing the practice of productive rest. Show me my faulty thinking and transform it into truth.”
Click HERE for free weekly articles sent to your inbox. Your info will never be shared!
©2023 Julianne Knapp. First published 4.18.23.
- Did your mind keep racing?
- Did you think of a million other things you “should” be doing?
- Did you feel guilty for “doing nothing”?
Rest is a lot more difficult than it sounds. It is, to date, the hardest thing I’m learning to do (and I’ve done a lot of hard things in my time!). The reasons are myriad. Perhaps you and I share some of them:
- My past paradigm did not allow for rest
- I didn’t know how to rest, or what rest even means
- I undervalued rest in God’s kingdom economy
Have you thought about why it is so hard to rest? I mean, what’s behind our inability to slow down, to relax our minds and bodies? And what does rest have to do with our theology?
One Caveat
Before we go any further, I want to clarify that rest, like any other discipline, takes practice. I would recommend that you start with five minutes of uninterrupted quiet time alone, giving yourself permission to sit still and observe your body’s and mind’s response. Slow down your breathing with long inhales and exhales, noticing how it makes you feel. Do this each day (without being hard on yourself if you skip a day), and increase your time by five more minutes as you’re able. Once you get used to this productive exercise and make space for it in your routine, you can explore ways you can engage in restful activity (like coloring while meditating) without heightening anxiety.
Rest After Trauma
Another point I’d like to clarify is, for the 30% or more of you readers who are trauma survivors, rest may be an enigma (temporarily). The hypervigilant brain patterns that result from hijacked emotions must be intentionally addressed. In other words, though you are safe now, your brain may still be overfunctioning – too busy to allow you to turn it off, at least at first. You may need to use your five minutes of rest per day to do “grounding” exercises. The goal is to “manually” direct your brain to relax. Here are a few ideas:
- Stand outside on the grass in your bare feet
- Use “tapping” exercises (HERE’s a helpful video)
- Focus on your breathing: inhale and exhale slowly
- Find 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, 1 thing you can taste
- Count backward from 100 by sevens
- Think about what you’re thinking about. Use Philippians 4:8 as a guide. If you get distracted, just let the thought go, then focus again.
Resting is Righteous Behavior
Hebrews 4:1-3 was written to believers who needed encouragement in this area of resting from “works”. Before we dismiss this passage (as if it were directed to “other people” who were “working for salvation”), consider how timely it is for us:
- God’s promise of entering His rest still stands
- this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us
- only we who believe can enter His rest
God, through Jesus, has accomplished everything that could ever be eternally important! Everything else is detail. We get all bent out of shape about the temporal things going on around us, as if we were responsible for holding the world on our own shoulders. Honestly, if we missed a day of our contrived “duties”, would it matter ten years from now? Five? One?
How much are we depending on ourselves, when nothing can be done without Jesus? Resting is an act of worship (literally, ‘ascribing worth to God’) by submitting ourselves and our activities to Him.
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:1-2
What Do We Really Believe About God?
Our inability to rest could be pointing to false beliefs about God. Consider this an opportunity to explore your heart, make any necessary changes (repent), and grow into Christ’s image through holy rest.
False Belief #1: God Is Not In Control; We Are
Our pride tempts us to take credit for what God does. Our striving (for survival, for attention, for dollars, for approval, for control, for status) is addictive (and idolatrous): it makes us feel important. Can you see how this thinking is antithetical to who we really are? We are limited, dependent creatures who have no idea of our hair count or how many days we have left, and no control over growing taller or becoming shorter. Every breath we draw is a miracle from God, and yet we work, work, work, thinking it’s up to us to carve out a life for ourselves or to control outcomes.
May I suggest that we have an arrogance problem and control issues? Deep down, we’re all trying to work our way through life. We believe it’s all about us: “If it’s to be, it’s up to me!” I’m not discounting our responsibility to obey God in what He’s calling us to do, but are we working hard in order to take credit for our accomplishments or to engineer outcomes that suit us? That’s exactly what’s killing us. Working doesn’t work. Think about it – how has working “harder” gotten you to a place of rest? Maybe it’s gotten you to retirement, but what about rest? And how has working gotten you closer to God?
False Belief #2: God Is Not Good
I wonder if our insecure nature is driving our theology (what we believe about God). We say we believe He is all-powerful, that He loves us, that He protects us – evidence of His goodness. We’ve witnessed His deliverance on multiple occasions. We’ve given testimony to His provision and protection. We know He’s there, watching over us. We’ve seen Him answer our prayers. But do our behaviors and attitudes reflect what we say we believe? Or do we still question His goodness, deciding to spring into action to take care of things ourselves, as if He doesn’t have our best interest at heart?
False Belief #3: Rest Doesn’t Accomplish Anything
Jesus offers us productive rest founded upon the belief that life isn’t up to us, nor is it about us. Our life is hidden with Christ – He has done all the important work necessary to keep our hearts from striving. We are what we were made to be: earthen “pots” capable of nothing without Him. We can take credit for nothing because He is our source, and all outcomes are up to Him! Our rest is productive because it reflects dependence on God. When we rest, we acknowledge that we are created, limited, dependent beings. We renew and refresh our bodies, minds, emotions, and souls.
Practicing Truth in Restfulness
Because we live in a fallen world, we suffer under the second law of thermodynamics: increasing entropy. We naturally tend toward decay or chaos. Left to ourselves, our bodies, thoughts, emotions, and spirits all spiral downward. We all “turn to our own way”. When we deny ourselves rest, we are headed for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual depletion. If, however, we are led by the Holy Spirit, we move toward renewal. Intentional rest with God accomplishes peace, goodness, freedom, and a positive perspective.
Our greatest need is to know God better. It’s impossible to develop our individual relationship with Him without practicing intentional rest in Him. The truth is, we cannot accomplish anything eternal in our own strength; we must rely on and cooperate with God. To live an integrated life is to act out what we say we believe: to be truthful with ourselves and our reality.
“Heavenly Father, teach me the value of resting in Your Presence, for relying on You as my source, and depending on You for outcomes. Help me cooperate with Your Holy Spirit in developing the practice of productive rest. Show me my faulty thinking and transform it into truth.”
Click HERE for free weekly articles sent to your inbox. Your info will never be shared!
©2023 Julianne Knapp. First published 4.18.23.