The Lord of the Sabbath is Trustworthy

The clock blinks, 4:38 AM. Too early to get up. Try to go back to sleep.

Did I pay that bill? 

I need to print off the dance calendar and make sure those rehearsal dates are clear. 

What are we having for dinner tonight? Do I need to go to the store?

Has the baby gained enough weight since his last appointment? Am I offering enough good choices so he gets all his vitamins and minerals? 

I’m pretty sure we have library books due. I need to check on that.

The thoughts whirl around until finally I realize I’m not going back to sleep. The to do list beckons. My world needs ordering.

Do you ever feel the burden of responsibility in life? Regardless of the role you play in your house, do you feel that the health, happiness, and prosperity of those you hold dear, rests in your hands?

Does your mind race with to do lists that never end or feel weighed down with worries?

Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) But who has time for that?

Is Rest the Answer?

I am in the thick of building my family.  There are four kids at home – a middle schooler, two in elementary, and a toddler. They are homeschooled. They are involved in activities at church, co-op, dance, theatre, sports, and of course, friends. Before the baby was born I started dipping my toe into the workforce as a writer, teacher, director and acting coach, taking on jobs here and there as the Lord leads. Taking a rest at this point in the game feels entirely counterproductive.

The activities of life ebb and flow with the seasons, and just when I think they are slowing, things pick back up again. I see my friends, all just as busy and wrapped up in their daily lives and I wonder, as the children grow and the opportunities to serve keep coming, what does Rest actually look like? Where do we find rest in seasons of busy?

Rest is Trust

As Ali reminded us at the beginning of this series, the Lord provides for all our needs, including our need to let go of the weight of the world.

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. – Psalm 127:2

I like how John Piper explains,

“Sleep is a daily reminder from God that we are not God. “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4). But Israel will. For we are not God. Once a day God sends us to bed like patients with a sickness. The sickness is a chronic tendency to think we are in control and that our work is indispensable. To cure us of this disease God turns us into helpless sacks of sand once a day. How humiliating to the self-made corporate executive that he has to give up all control and become as limp as a suckling infant every day.”

Rest, it seems, is the action of trust. Taking time to rest acknowledges our dependability on God.

You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you. – Isaiah 26:3

But why Rest?

Trust is a surprisingly big ask. It’s much easier to say that we trust God than to live it out in light of all the things we do not know and have no control over. Even the daily gift of sleep is not exactly something we choose.

The Sabbath, on the other hand, is an invitation. For our own benefit the Lord offers us regular opportunity to experience Him as trustworthy.

He can be trusted because He is

• unchangeable (Malachi 3:6; Numbers 23:19; Psalm 102:26-27)
• Just (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 18:30)
• Good (Psalm 145:9, Psalm 34:8)
• He keeps his promises (Numbers 23:19, 2 Corinthians 1:20)

As we practice the Sabbath rest we learn firsthand that God is worth putting our trust in and on that foundation of experience we can “be still and know”  who God is.