Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV)

Rest draws our focus back to God and acts as a sacred reminder that we are created to embrace and enjoy God. Because of this connection and contentment, we are liberated from the conflict of considering work to be more important than it truly is and ignoring the necessity for rest and rejuvenation. By rediscovering God's original intention for work and rest, we will see both as worthwhile pursuits that deepen our relationship and service to Him.

While we tend to put work before rest, Jesus, however, emphasises that rest should come before work. This can be traced back to Genesis when Adam was created on the Sabbath day so that he could partake and take pleasure in God's rest. It is through His finished work on the cross that Jesus secured for us a rest that even Adam could not have enjoyed.

Because we have entered into Christ's eternal Sabbath rest by faith—something we could never do or earn on our own—we have direct access to God. We don't need a special invitation or authorisation to reach God because Christ has already made it possible for us to do so. Thus, rest is a gift that should be experienced fully rather than a goal to be pursued.

“Anapauo” is the Greek word for rest, which means "to relax, to refresh". It is derived from the root word “pauo” which is "to pause." Rest is holy interruption. It is to consciously step away from the demands of our daily busyness in order to be with Jesus and learn rest and grace from Him.

How do we experience this rest?

Discover from Jesus how He maintains a restful spirit in the midst of daily challenges.

Cultivate a daily awareness of God by resting in His presence every morning and every evening (and everywhere in between). Keep inviting God into your thoughts and feelings as you go about your daily activities and be ready for God to lead you and make clear His way. We will then discover that rest is both resisting and not resisting. We resist trying to control how life unfolds and not resisting what God is doing right now and engaging in it. This explains why Jesus was fruitful and effective in every way. Because rest enables Him to move according to God's pace, speed and timings, He was never in a rush or under pressure to do God's work.

If we learn to rest in God and then work with Him, it is possible to do so much, bless so many, even inspire many more, and still experience the unhurried life that Christ wants for each of us.