Rest For Your Souls: Introduction
Resting is often the most challenging part of my week. The idea of slowing down, not working, not entertaining, but simply relaxing, goes against our culture today. If you’re not achieving, not staying busy, not hustling, then what are you doing?
From my experience, if you never rest, you will constantly live in a state of stress, exhaustion, and frustration until you burn out. Truly achieving and succeeding in the important areas of our lives comes from a place of rest.
Our theme this fall at Community Church comes from Matthew 11:28-30. Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Later this month we will explore this passage in more detail.
Today, I will share some practices my family and I recently adopted helping us make rest a priority. Hopefully these three habits will inspire you to cultivate your own practices that lead to experiencing rest in Jesus.
First, schedule rest. This sounds counterproductive, right? Shouldn’t rest be unscheduled, relaxed, maybe even spontaneous? In our busy lives, we found that if we never scheduled rest, we would never actually find rest. When we schedule rest, we make it a priority. When more tasks at work or opportunities with friends come up and compete for our time previously set aside for rest, we say, “no,” and rest instead.
Second, put away your electronics. Our phones, tablets, computers, TV’s, smart watches, etc… all compete for our attention. A ping from a message or notification takes us away from rest and draws us back into never ending business. I would argue, in fact, that our devices are not products that we consume, but instead our products consume us. Turning devices off and putting them away for a time helps us set healthier boundaries. (For some inspiration on this subject, check out John Mark Comer’s podcast on Digital Asceticism)
As a family we take one afternoon each week and turn off our computers, set tablets and phones to “do not disturb” and close them away in a drawer. Then, we enjoy restful time as a family until after breakfast the next morning. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy this time each week. This screen-free time allows us freedom to breathe, go on a walk, play a board game, or even go to bed at 20:00!
Give it a try. Put away all your devices for a day and rest.
Third, find spiritual rest by spending time with Jesus. Invite God into your rest while you’re not busy or distracted. Pray by yourself, with a roommate, or your family. Read and meditate on a passage from the Bible like Matthew 11:28-30. Slow down, stop talking, open your ears and receive the words of Jesus, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” By scheduling time and removing distractions for physical rest, we allow our souls to opportunity to experience spiritual rest in Jesus.
I hope these ideas inspire you to develop habits of rest in your life. Interested in learning more about this theme, “Rest for your Souls”? Then join us at our upcoming Explore the Bible series!
