September 1, 2023
Beloved of God,
God made us to work and to rest.
The first commandment God gave the human beings He’d just made was (Genesis 1:28 tells us) to be fruitful and multiply and to exercise faithful stewardship over the rest of creation. Later in Genesis (in verse 2:15), the Bible says that the Lord God “put” the human beings in the Garden of Eden “to till it and keep it” – that is, to do the good work of taking care of His good creation.
We were made to work in partnership with God!
Yet, we were also made to rest in imitation of God!
For Genesis tells us (in verse 2:2) that, immediately after finishing His work of creation, God “rested on the seventh day from all the work that He had done.” As He did, God (according to verse 2:3) “blessed the seventh day and hallowed it” to become what He’d later give us as the fourth of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11).
Both work and rest are joy-inducing blessings from the hand of our gracious God!
While last month Covenant carried on the joyful work of Sunday morning worship and Christian discipleship, it rested from almost all of its other joyful work.
We two, Covenant’s pastors, prayed that all the members of our beloved community would rest a bit, recuperate a bit and recover a clear sense of God’s will for themselves as unique individuals and for all of us together as a family of Jesus’ followers.
That certainly happened for the two of us during the time off we took. We returned from our sabbatical reinvigorated, renewed in our confidence in prayer, and ready to trust and obey the Lord as He leads the church forward.
Good work arises out of good rest!
Of course, after an extended time of rest, there may be at first some special work we have to do in order to overcome the momentum into which we settled during our season of rest and to resume the joyful work of which we let go for that season. This month please do make a special effort to return to participation in Bible studies, small groups, community service, discipleship, and the like.
Of course, joyful work – when it is the work God has assigned us in particular to do, and is done in God’s way, at God’s time and by God’s grace – brings a restfulness to the soul.
Consider Jesus’ command and promise in Matthew 11:28-30. There our Lord says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
While there are days and seasons for total rest, the deepest rest for our souls comes, not from refraining from all work, but from doing the right work. To do the right work is to take Jesus’ yoke upon us, and to do the work of obeying the commandments He’s given us in particular. Our gentle and humble Lord has designed a unique yoke for each of us to carry, and laboring under it is an “easy” and “light” burden by which we will find our best rest!
In the grace of Christ,
Rob & Adele
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