In my previous post, I explored why rest is appointed and blessed by God: as seen in Scripture. He even models it for us, choosing a day of rest in the midst of His own creative work.

Many people approach the idea of rest with hesitation or skepticism. This is especially true for those who value “hard work” and struggle to see the purpose of resting in the Lord.

Rest is not necessarily complacency. In fact, for the believer, rest often requires far more faith than any self-made plan for success does.

King David himself held this very revelation.

Psalm 37 was written in the later years of his life, after he had survived countless threats to his throne, won improbable victories, and expanded Israel’s territory to its greatest extent.

Yet in this acrostic psalm, reminiscent of the poetic style of Proverbs, the wise king offers this profound advice:

“Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass... rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way.”

This passage implies that much of our stress and overwork comes from comparing ourselves to others - especially those who seem to prosper through unrighteousness.

Perhaps more importantly, the Hebrew word translated as “wait patiently” in Psalm 37 does not suggest passivity or laziness. It can also mean “to dance”, “to twist”, or “to whirl”.

The point is, through David’s poem, God is inviting us into a kind of rest that is active, dynamic, and requires more faith than simply working harder in our own strength.

Counterintuitively, this kind of rest in the Lord actually unlocks advancement and promotion. Psalm 37 continues on to say: “Hope in the Lord, and keep His way. He will exalt you to inherit the land.”

As one church leader I respect says, “all advancement in the Kingdom comes through surrender. We yield our way into breakthrough.”

Those who do not walk with the Lord do not have access to His strength and grace in this way, but we are cautioned to not mimic their ways. Productivity hacks that steal our peace were never designed for God’s people.

The Lord warns us against the kind of work that is often celebrated by today’s go-getters. This statement in Psalm 127 should be sobering to anyone who feels pressure to “hustle”:

"It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep.”

But what about all the other verses and parables that emphasize hard work, diligence, and good stewardship? Surely those are true as well, some might ask. Yes - in measure they are - but they are counterbalanced by the rest God has designed for us.

Scripture without relationship can point you in many different directions - just look at how Satan quoted the Bible to tempt Jesus into striving and performing outside the Father’s will. In these moments, it becomes clear that a relationship with the Author of the Word is required to discern what he is highlighting to you in this season.

So how do we begin partnering with the Lord through rest? A good place to start is by asking Him to show you any areas of your life where you already feel convicted.

Honoring the Sabbath for what it was intended to be - a day of rest - should be non-negotiable. Beyond that, where else in your life would choosing to lay down “productivity” feel like a genuine sacrifice in favor of His presence?

In what times of life would you benefit most from His security rather than your own stress?

Often, the Lord calls us to rest at the very moment when we feel we can least afford to stop. This when we arrive at the ultimate test: faith versus striving.

Resting in these times also allows us to hear what God is already blessing, and not just constantly asking him to bless what we’re doing.

This is why I believe rest can be a very active experience - one demands great faith and motion with the Lord, and which leads to unreasonable advancement. More on that in my next post.

Many of us feel uncomfortable when we rest instead of working, and we have good reason. After all, no one respects laziness and our society puts a high premium on “hustle”.

Yet, under the guise of diligence, we enslave ourselves to our own self-appointed goals. How many productivity gurus truly appear free of stress, anxiety and work on at least one day per week? Not many.

Instead we bulldoze through our God-appointed seasons of rest, muttering “there’s no rest for the wicked”, without realizing that we are literally confessing our allegiance to a world that shares no alignment with faith.

The burden of inadequacy, shame and guilt that so often motivates our productivity levels isn’t ours to carry.

Jesus promised, “My yoke is easy, my burden light.” The yoke was a wooden beam that linked two bulls or horses together to work as one. The burden is easy because it is shared; the stress only comes when we pull against Him instead of with Him.

He also said “I no longer call you servants, but friends.” In other words, slaving away and over-working, even for a righteous cause, no longer suits us.

The Old Covenant foreshadowed this new reality when the Lord commanded His people to rest every seventh day and seventh year. What was etched into ancient Mosaic law reveals a greater spiritual reality accessible to us today.

And that new reality is this: we master rest not only to affirm our empowered identity in Christ as sons and daughters, but also to express faith and surrender to the One who also works on our behalf.

Believers who refuse to accept this truth may continue to sweat and muscle their way through life, but they may eventually be disciplined by the Lord to learn the ways of a son and a daughter.

In this way, “forced” seasons of rest often act like a refining fire. Biblically, this can be compared to the “wilderness seasons” of many heroes of the faith, who had to endure years of limbo and obscurity.

The apostle Paul, fresh from an encounter with God Himself and a commission to bring the gospel to the world, entered into the desert for three years as the Lord led him.

David, whom God anointed as king of Israel and whom the nation already recognized as their next leader, refused self-promotion and allowed God to lead him into the anonymity of the wilderness for a whole decade.

The prophet Elijah captivated the heart of a nation in one day of extraordinary public miracles, and the next day was sent by God into the wilderness to fast for forty days.

Perhaps that’s why Jesus voluntarily disconnected from the crowds and went into the wilderness to pray. If we do not pursue godly rest like he did, it will surely pursue us.

In fact, God often engineers times of rest and disconnection from work to bring greater alignment and revelation about our purpose and assignment.

The apostle Peter literally lay in his bed sleeping while others prepared him dinner when the Lord showed him a vision that unlocked the gospel for the entire world. Those of us who are non-Jews but disciples of Jesus can be thankful Peter took that nap.

The prophet Daniel, a high-ranking government leader in the Babylonian Empire, fell into a deep sleep and received a word from the Lord that continues to reverberate thousands of years later. Whatever other “king’s business” he was on at the time, pales in comparison to that.

And the apostle John, exiled to a remote island far from any geo-political relevance, received insight into Heaven and the future of the world.

The point is, the most “non-productive” moments in life are not what they seem on the surface, at least for the believer. The Lord blesses the seasons of rest He has designed for us and will use them for our good. Will we honor the rest He has appointed for us?

If you find yourself stuck in a cycle of never-ending productivity tasks that are running you into the ground, I believe freedom awaits you.

Allow rest to cost you something. Offer it as a sacrifice.

Resting does not have to mean complacency, and I will write about this next. Perhaps you will receive inspiration, or a greater sense of direction and creativity. Or maybe you will simply receive restoration in your physical body and soul. You can trust that the Lord’s design is good and that He will work it to your benefit.

Fourteen years ago, alone in my bedroom in prayer, I discovered one of the greatest gifts of my life.

It involved a piece of Scripture that was designed to meet my heart at that very point in time.

The gravity of this otherwise mundane moment suggests it was divinely appointed, and not drummed up by my merely curious mind. Simply browsing text has very limited ability to change a life in an instant. And yet that is the effect it had. Perhaps it is your moment too.

I had heard about the Epistle to the Ephesians and how its truths could transform a life searching for an identity. Often referred to as the “Alps of the New Testament”, I was not disappointed in the grandeur of this letter written to an Ancient Greek audience.

Many of its passages spoke directly into my hungry, searching soul, but there was one that remains quite special to me.

“Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance.” (Ephesians 1:14)

I was already a believer, but I had no idea I was in possession of a “guarantee”.

The original Greek word for ‘guarantee’ is arrabōn, which means a down payment, deposit, or the first installment of a full inheritance.

As a young person with conflicted loyalties and a patchy history of following God, I discovered that I had nevertheless received a massive down payment into my spiritual account.

And that down payment is the Spirit of God Himself.

This stunning revelation was foreshadowed several verses earlier by the Apostle Paul when he declared we have been “blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” (Eph 1:3)

Unsurprisingly, the original Greek for every, means every. As in, every possible spiritual blessing had already been given to those who believe. This is a statement so bold it requires no small measure of faith to appreciate.

I didn’t know it then, but looking back now, I do see that Jesus provided the user’s manual for stewarding this monumental truth, once it had been unearthed by the believer. It was contained in his parable of the “Treasure in the Field”.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

As it turned out, in my very early twenties, having been a believer for most of my life, I was discovering my true spiritual wealth for the first time.

I had accidentally stumbled upon a hidden treasure that now required something from me to keep it. In fact, it required everything of me. More than scholarly knowledge impressing my mind, my heart actually leapt at this revelation and the tangible presence of God met me there in my bedroom.

It soon became apparent to me that much of what I had built my life around had to be let go, so that I could take possession of the thing that held infinitely more value - the Kingdom of God, and the Spirit of the King Himself.

That led me on a journey of fourteen years around the world that, up until this point, still informs how I live, think, and act.

I hope to get some of that down in writing, and hopefully it will be encouraging to you too.

Yours,

Luke