Rest is...

"Rest, therefore, is not the absence of work or failure to consider and to carry out a plan. It is work and leisure properly ordered. It is doing the right thing at the right time, realizing that our task is to hear God's call and follow His commands, and then trust that God will be God - and to be at rest even while at work."

 - Sarah Mackenzie, Teaching from Rest, 

Rest is…

A friend gave me a book recently called, Teaching from Rest, about the concept of homeschooling from a place of rest instead of worry, etc… It has been helpful mentally to process. I highly recommend it if you desire to learn more about teaching or even parenting from rest instead of anxiety.



I’ve been learning a lot about rest this year. Most years I feel God is working on a specific concept in my heart, as I am slow to let concepts sink into my brain.

“Rest, then is not the absence of work or toil. It is the absence of anxiety or frenzy.”

- Teaching from Rest –

I feel like that was a large part of our summer, learning to rest. Not necessarily sitting around and doing nothing, but not worrying about the same things we always worry about here on the mission field, or in the pastoral ministry. We left our social media behind when we left, we left any contact info, any way to get ahold of us. And we rested from worry. Most of the time. I still wondered. But it was a different kind of rest.



Resting in ministry means leaving the weight of the people and their burdens behind too, knowing God will give them what they need, through someone else perhaps, or through Himself alone. They don’t need me. I found also that ministry can be an addiction of sorts, where if I don’t have it I crave it and make more of it, because that makes me feel important.



Repenting of that and seeing that if God desires me to minister that He will provide the space. If not, then He won’t. So resting, that allowed me the chance to see that God is going to do the work, and He may use us. He may not. Either way, I want to learn to rest well.



A wise couple quoted this verse to me this year, and I have heard it repeatedly over the last few months.

Isaiah 30:15

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation,

    in quietness and trust is your strength,

    but you would have none of it.”

Rather my heart would like to strive. My heart would like to feel anxiety because that’s what I’m used to. Rather, I need to rest. Rest in the finished work of Christ. Rest in the knowledge that God is doing the work. Rest instead of worry.


More resources:
Paul David Tripp's mediation on rest

https://youtu.be/3JZK53z96f4

Another great article on rest

https://www.crossway.org/articles/is-rest-just-a-dream/