When the work is to rest…

I braced myself for the inevitable answer: More work.

In fact, I was so convinced that’d be the answer that I even scribbled down a reminder to write a blog post entitled, “More work.” (Don’t you love how I try to teach myself a lesson in advance of God teaching me a lesson?)

The details don’t matter, but I went into this meeting ready for the big news: More work. And although I don’t mind work, I love what I do, but I was in the home stretch of retreat-speaking and homeschooling and the forecast was sunny skies and this girl could almost taste the sweetness of some lazy afternoons in the shade, watching the kids splash in the pool.

So I braced myself for the command: More work.

There really wasn’t any other possible outcome for this meeting.

Except for an impossible outcome that wasn’t anywhere near my radar. It was such a ridiculously outlandish outcome that I wouldn’t have thought it in a million years. And while it wasn’t necessary cause for a victory dance, the message to me was clear in this moment:

Right now your work is to rest.

Sure, I still have stuff to do. I still have life waiting at home for me, just like you. But what I thought was the dawn of another season of intensity, turned out to be the announcement of a different kind of season altogether: A season of rest. Some might call it waiting, but waiting implies a bit of anxiousness. I’m not anxious. I trust. God’s got this, and right now my work is to rest.

Sometimes that’s His Word for us: The work is to rest.

And … that’s the gospel.

When we trust in Jesus, we cease the work and enter the rest.

“To the one who does not work but trusts Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” (Rom 4:5)

“For there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His.” (Heb. 4:9-10)

There are Sabbath days and Sabbath seasons and Sabbath mindsets. Let us live with a Sabbath mindset, entering into the rest of trusting God’s finished work on the cross. There will be (many) days of intense labor ahead, but perhaps, for someone out there, this word is for you:

Today your work is to rest. 

{Happy June! Thanks for reading.}