So many of us have busy lives. We pack our schedules to the brim and, as a result, we wear ourselves out. The more worn out we are, the more ineffective our work becomes and we become trapped in this vicious cycle where the quality of our work plummets and we run ourselves into the ground.

Here’s the thing: this doesn’t only apply to our day jobs. This applies to our walk with Christ as well. We can get so focused on what God wants us to do that we lose sight of the fact that He calls us to spend time with Him. One of my favorite worship leaders, a guy named Jonathan David Helser, says, “The Father is pleased in our being, not in our doing.”

Genesis 2:2-3 says, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” Here, we can see that God was setting an example for us to take a rest from our work.

So here's a question: What do you think God did on the seventh day of Creation? He wasn’t worn out. He wasn’t sleeping. He’s God! He’s all-powerful and has infinite energy. So if He wasn’t tired, what was He doing? I think the answer lies in what God did on the sixth day of Creation. Genesis 1:27-28 says that on that day, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

On day six, God made Adam and Eve. On day seven, God rested from the work He had done. It’s almost as if He had cleared His whole day to focus completely on spending time with Adam and Eve in their first day in the Garden of Eden. We know from other Scriptures in Genesis that God walked through the Garden with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8), so I think that God rested from His work of creating to set an example for us and to spend time with us.

Here are two things we can remember as we practice being and not doing:

1. Rest comes before work.

This presents a truth about our relationship with God that can be a little bit counter-intuitive for us in our culture. On the first day that Adam and Eve were on the earth, God just wanted them to spend time with Him. God took the day off to spend with His creation and He set a precedent for His people that says that a relationship with Him is more important than doing things for Him. The rest comes before the work. This is a tough concept for us! You don’t have to earn your rest. In fact, your rest is a gift that you receive that enables you to do your work. Embracing that rest is key to living life day-to-day. As a child of God, you get to enjoy His presence and then do work for God that comes out of the overflow of your heart. Our work should be a by-product of the time that we spend with the Father.

I think there is a basic kind of rest that we should have every week: daily time with God. David and the other Psalm writers sing that God is the source of our strength (Psalm 18, Psalm 22, Psalm 28, Psalm 46, Psalm 59, Psalm 68, Psalm 118). If we neglect to spend this time with Him, our daily lives will suffer. If we don’t spend time each day reading Scripture, praying, and worshipping, we cannot hope to be adequately filled for the work God has called us to. Part of making sure that you are spiritually fed lies in connecting with God every day.

2. Taking a Sabbath is necessary.

The purpose of the Sabbath is twofold: to abstain from work and to connect with God. We often hear the Sabbath mentioned in the Old Testament; indeed, keeping the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11). However, this is not just an ancient tradition that no longer applies to us.

In Mark 2:27-28, Jesus addresses the concept of the Sabbath. In this passage, Jesus and His disciples were walking through some fields and the disciples picked some heads of grain to eat because they were hungry. The religious leaders were angry because the disciples were breaking the Jewish customs of what was allowed on the Sabbath, so they told Jesus to rebuke His disciples. Jesus replied, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Jesus is pretty clear: the purpose of the Sabbath is for you to recover.

On the Sabbath, I will typically spend more time with God than I do on the other days of the week. I will also spend time with my friends and family. Now, I’m not perfect at having a Sabbath, but I can tell a difference in my life in the weeks that I miss it. Whatever the Sabbath looks like for you, you can be sure that it should include time with God and abstinence from work. It’s a time of physical, emotional, and spiritual preparation for the week ahead. As we saw with Adam and Eve, God wants us to rest with Him first, and then work from that rest. Otherwise, we’re putting the cart in front of the horse. God wants us to work, but He prioritizes being with Him above doing for Him.

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 Kenton is an intern helping with musician development at the Jackson Road Campus with an emphasis on developing acoustic and electric guitarists. He is also the coordinator of Young Adult Worship and loves the tv show Psych. Kenton will also graduate from ND this spring!

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