We all have trouble resting, I’m not just talking about getting the proper amount of sleep in an evening, but true rest. I was sitting with four other ministry friends this week discussing this topic, of rest. One of my friends mentioned that God gave him a great vision for his ministry and then God told him to wait.  My friend was ready to run into this new vision.  

Once you conceive a vision you must wait until full gustation of that vision before you can birth it. Any premature birth can cause complications or worse death. We must learn to rest.    

God’s rest is not a stop sign it is a yield sign. 

Just like you can not just stop a pregnancy, without causing death, you have to rest until the right time. Still cultivate what is within, by proper nutrition and enough rest.  The only time a physical body grows/develops is when the body is sleeping (at rest) because the growth hormone is normally released during sleep cycles. This is evident in infants’ and adolescents’ sleep patterns, where they demonstrate more frequent and longer sleep.

Rest is a hard concept, in western society and the church, we think once God gives us a vision it is up to us to complete it. God knew the power of rest and gives us an example when He design of the Sabbath, for His people. The Sabbath is a weekly day, that God determined, for His people to ceased from any type of labor. The Jewish people still today practice this sabbath rest some out of tradition and some out of faith. Knowing that God will and has provided everything they needed and will need. They will spend this day meditating on God with reading scriptures and praying, also spending time with family.

The Jewish people have practiced the art sabbath rest for thousands of years. So when God, through the prophets told his people again that the land of Israel belongs to them. They were able to rest in God for the restoration of their land and their nation was reestablished in 1948.  

This is what Jesus our Lord and example states about the sabbath.

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us, therefore, strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”

Hebrews‬ ‭4:9-11‬ ‭ESV‬

And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Mark 2:27 ESV

God intended us to rest (wait) on Him. He will give us a vision and could ask us to wait. We can cause problems by pushing thought in our own strength, as we can see thought out the Bible. Abraham and Sarah were to be a father and mother of a great nation They decided to press pass the rest and have a child with another woman. King Saul did not rest while waiting for Samual to present the offering to God because he pressed pass the rest the kingdom of Israel was taken from him. Judas saw the vision of Jesus being the King of Israel and the world. Wanting to make it come to pass, he also pressed pass the rest and tried to bring Him to power outside of God’s planed time and way. 

Each of these men pressed past the rest and had to deal with the consequence of that the press. Abraham had to deal with two nations fighting for the land that God gave him. Saul besides losing the kingdom he divided the nation of Israel. And Judas could not deal with the press that it caused him to take his own life.

When we press past the rest it could cause effects in our own lives (Judas) as well as in a city (King Saul) or even the world to this day (Abraham). Hebrews 4:11 states “Let us, therefore, strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.” God is warning us to practice this Sabbath rest, so when the time comes we won’t press pass His timing and we don’t have to fall into the same disobedience. The disobedience of not trusting His times, seasons and provision.

In this verse it does state we must ”strive to enter that rest” it is not easy to rest spiritually but also naturally. Today western society does not make resting easy. We have access to gas stations, stores, and restaurants 24 hours a day. A growing number of employer expects workers to work six if not seven days a week. We have access to every type of entertainment online all the time.

So many things are vying for our time, all these conveniences make it hard to truly rest so we strive after all the wrong things.