Rest is not idleness.
Indeed, restlessness is the torment of idle people. It is not relaxation. Relaxation should never be necessary, because the nervous tension which makes it so should never be present.
Rest, far from being relaxation, is a culmination, a fullness of gathered peace, like the fullness and stillness of waters gathered to a flood tide.
Think of a child asleep in his mother’s arms: the abandon with which he gives himself to sleep can only be because he has complete trust in the arms that hold him. He is not lying asleep on that heart because he is worn out with anxiety. He is asleep there because it is a delight to him to be asleep there. The mother rests, too. She rests in his rest. Her mind and her body rest in him. His head fits into the crook of her curved arm. Their warmth is mingled like the warmth of two softly burning flames. She rocks to and fro, and her rocking is unconsciously timed by his breathing. Rest is a communion of love between them. It is a culmination of content: on the child’s part, utter trust in his mother; on the mother’s part, sheer joy in the power of her love to sustain his life.
Such as this was the rest of God in the beginning of time, when he had created the world:And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
God could not need rest. He could not be tired by creating the world. His rest was the infinite peace of infinite love. (Caryll Houselander. “Proper Sabbath Rest.” from Wood of the Cradle, Wood of the Cross: The Little Way of the Infant Jesus).
Unrest, Hebrews 3:7 – 4:10 wilderness/desert = unrest
- Psalm 95, repeat of Hebrews
- Psalm 78 – hurry and busyness = unrest
- Psalm 106 – materialism = unrest
- Isaiah – neglect of Sabbath = unrest
Rest, stillness/ worship / no-work
- trusting in God’s timing
- trusting in Gods provision
- trusting in God’s rest