Soul Rest: Discovering the Sabbath
Sabbath is an idea I’ve been on a journey with for the past four months or so. I haven’t been able to escape it. It’s been in every chapter of every book I’ve been reading, every podcast I’ve been listening to, every teaching I’ve heard… It’s all been about the idea of Sabbath.
For most of my Christian life I thought I spent a lot of time with God. Ever since I was a baby Christian, I’ve helped at summer camps, served at youth events, I took a gap year out on a Christian leadership course, I’m currently on an internship with Onelife, I go to church every Sunday (online), I attend my connect group every week, I read my Bible every morning and keep track of that with a few friends…
*breathe*
This is all good stuff. I’m not saying any of it is bad, but there is one thing that connects it all, something that silently distracts us from God, by disguising itself as somethings good. This is all doing with God, not being with him.
Doing with God over being with God.
If this phrase doesn’t ring true in your life, that is amazing! But I’m sure for a lot of us it’s a scary reality. Human nature’s anthem is ‘Go, go, go, busy, busy, busy’ – we often don’t give ourselves a chance to stop and take a breath. I was stuck in a cycle of doing with God so much, I forgot how to just be with him.
We must feed out of our in.
Our inner peace and rest, being with God, shapes our outward conflict resolutions, conversations, decision making, doing with God. As leaders, we need to be leading out of our in as well. Leading from restful places, rather than leading out of exhaustion. Things like conflict resolution will be so much easier, kinder and wiser if we are sound on the inside.
We often feel like we need to earn rest by doing, being busy, but when we’re doing things, being busy, we don’t have time to rest. This is why we should nail our attitude to Sabbath now.
What is Sabbath?
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. – Genesis 2:3
It is a day committed to the Lord, where we rest, eat, spend time with family and friends. The Sabbath is a renewing of our soul. It’s there to charge the battery of our soul.
Imagine your soul like a phone battery. Sometimes we wait until our phone is 2% to charge it and it’s a rush to connect it to a power source before our phone dies. But sometimes we put it on charge as maintenance – we reach 40% and we calmly plug it in. Our rest should be like the latter. We shouldn’t just rest because we are completely exhausted or because we ‘need’ it, we should rest as part of our life, as maintenance.
In Mark 4, we read about a time when Jesus slept through an entire storm while his disciples panicked.
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. – Mark 4:35-40
There was no panic from Jesus. He didn’t wait for the storm to pass before having a nap. He knew he needed rest and if the God of the universe needs rest, that is probably a clue we need it too.
The Sabbath is a necessity. It’s even in the Ten Commandments! We treat the rest of the Commandments as law – don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal – but if we don’t take the Sabbath, we are more likely to get a reward than anything. Have you ever noticed that the Sabbath is the only commandment where God says ‘remember’… Because we are very likely to forget it.
Now there’s a difference between a day off and a Sabbath. The way I like to look at it is the difference between ‘soul rest’ and a simple day off. A day off is where we numb our thoughts with entertainment, fill our guts and sleep too much. On a Sabbath, we take time to enjoy what God has created and provided, seek his face and rest in him.
Now ‘soul rest’ can look different to different people. One of the things that brings me ‘soul rest’ is journalling. At the end of the day, writing down the things I did, the emotions I felt, my reactions to what people said and did; it really helps me bring my mind to the present. It also helps me fall asleep, because I have processed my day and bought it all before the Lord. My boyfriend finds this incredibly strange. He doesn’t find ‘soul rest’ in journalling. He finds it when he’s playing his guitar or taking time to look at the clouds. Different people are going to have different ‘soul rest’.
Opposition
You may have heard the phrase, ‘The devil doesn’t rest, so I can’t either’. My question is, why are we basing our Christian walk on what devil does or doesn’t do? Yes, the devil doesn’t rest, but not because he doesn’t want to, it’s because he can’t.
For they cannot rest until they do evil; they are robbed of sleep till they make someone stumble. – Proverbs 4:16
This verse talks about evil people not being able to rest until they’ve done something bad. There is a price for rest for the evil. We take being able to rest for advantage, but we must remember it is a gift from God. There is no payment for rest, God gives good gifts.
One of the reasons I struggle with the Sabbath is because of my pride. The Sabbath reminds us that the world goes on without us. Taking a day to delete Instagram off my phone isn’t going to change anyone else’s world apart from my own. I can tell you now, whatever you chose to give up for 24 hours (or however long you choose to Sabbath), will not rock anyone else’s world other than your own. That is hard for a lot of us to hear. But remember, sometimes the smaller we feel, the bigger God feels.
Be still and know that I am God – Psalm 46:10
What now?
FIND WHAT YOU NEED TO DROP
Some of the things I battle with on a Sabbath are social media, overeating, not going outside… something that doesn’t fill you with joy even though it might be society’s way of ‘resting’.
FIND WHAT YOU NEED TO PICK UP
A few things that I love are going on prayer walks or going out into God’s creation, playing board games with the people I live with, eating a home-cooked meal… Again, search for, experiment with things and see what you love and give you that ‘soul rest’.
REMEMBER THAT THE SABBATH IS FOR GOD, NOT YOU
This is a great day to rest in his presence – a practical thing I love to do is sitting with him with a journal by my side and writing down anything that comes to mind as I sit with him. Let him speak to you.
Whether Sabbath is a new concept to you or you’ve been ‘sabbathing’ for years, don’t miss your next opportunity to find true ‘soul rest’. You won’t regret it – I promise!
Mackenzie (Kenzie) is on a Onelife internship this year.
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