So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, or whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

Hebrews 4:9-10 (ESV)

The Sabbath was designed by God to allow us to rest and cease working. He modelled it by resting on the seventh day after six days of creating the world. If God continued to create without pausing, it indicates that He was unsatisfied with His own creation. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews uses the concept of the Sabbath rest to illustrate the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because God was satisfied with His Son's finished work on the cross, we are freed from self-effort to rest in the certainty of Christ’s righteousness.

The rest we have in Christ is not given to us because we are good or deserving, but because God is good, gracious and generous.

Rest is resistance.

We reject trusting in our own ability to save ourselves. We resist earning God's favour or acceptance by following man-made standards and rules. We resist thinking God will only love us if we are perfect.

So much teaching and preaching revolve around being busy and especially being seen to be busy for God that the heartbeat of the gospel goes unheeded and unrecognised. Busyness in the Christian life, even in ministry, is a burden when it determines our sense of self-worth and how we value and view ourselves. God calls us out of this infantile behaviour by showing us our identity in Christ and what He has done for us.

Our relationship with God doesn’t start with service. It begins and ends with resting in Christ so that His life in us empowers us to grow and flourish in every good work. Then our Christian life is marked and expressed by our fruitfulness rather than our busyness.

The Apostle Paul understands this supernatural reality of rest when he experiences the power of God's grace working in him.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

1 Corinthians 15:10 (ESV)

The more grace Paul receives from God, the more grace enables him to serve God without becoming weary or losing heart. Grace is the power of Christ at work in us through His Spirit to do far more than we can dream or even imagine! We have so much more in Christ than we realize, and it is only through resting in Him that we may fulfil His calling in our lives.