Devotional Bible Study: What Does the Bible Say About Rest?

Hey Friend!

Do you struggle with rest? Does it feel elusive? Like something that you’ll never find under a million loads of laundry, extra-curricular activities, housework, business work, and family time? I get it! There is so much to do and it feels like so little time to do it. The last thing you want to do is add something else to the list. It’s hard to lay down the busy, and the important to-dos to just be still. In today’s blog, I walk you through the question, “What does the bible say about rest?”, as well as my five S’s to find rest in your life, even as a busy mompreneur.

What Does the Bible Say About Rest? A Devotional Bible Study for the Busy Mompreneur.

God rested first

God desires rest. Going back to the beginning of time, we know that God worked creating for six days, and on the seventh day, He rested. This is interesting because it doesn’t say God was lazy or so tired. Isaiah 40:28 tells us, “The Lord is the ever lasting God, the creator of the whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary.” God wasn’t resting from being faint, weary, or weak because God never tires. He rests because He is ceasing and celebrating. 

The Hebrew word for rest means “to cease from.” ‘To cease from’ doesn’t mean relinquishing every single thing. It just means we are doing a new type of work involving celebration, satisfaction, and joy, even worshiping over what is being done. As God rested on the seventh day when He finished His work, we are also called to do the same.

Why are we so resistant to rest?

Why are we so resistant to rest? What’s keeping us from leaning into something that seems so beautiful? Isn’t it such a gift we get to cease and celebrate?! The conclusion I’ve come to through scripture is that we don’t rest because we need to control everything. We need to control time and force things to work out in our favor. But that shows we’re not trusting God. We are not the author of time; God is. Time does not belong to us; it’s a gift God has created for us.

So often, we don’t rest, cease or celebrate in His presence because we are trying to control time and all the outcomes. God can do more with 90% of our time than we can do 110% of our time. He can even do more with 1% of our time than we can do with 110%.

Be available to rest

If God desires us to rest, we are called to stop moving, stop working and trust Him. Let go of our grip on stress and worry, having the perfect home 24/7, our finances, our business, everything. So we can enter into God’s rest.

Psalm 37:7 says, “Rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him.” So, we are to rest in the Lord. It doesn’t say to veg out, watch some TV or have a nap (while they can be good!), it’s about a blend of physical and spiritual rest. It’s about getting more peaceful, surrendering, and allowing ourselves to take a step back and relinquish control. There is such beauty and gifts in the moments when we just let go, when we stop moving and allow life to keep moving. 

This looks different for everyone. It can look like a slow Saturday where I watch my kids play when I read for an hour instead of working, do the laundry while listening to worship music, go on a mountain bike ride, and sometimes it means just sitting peacefully. 

Rest can look so different depending on the gift God is trying to give us that day. While this isn’t something we can do all the time when I became available for it, God began to show me the beautiful pockets of time He had carved out for me to rest. All I had to do was to ask and be willing. 

The best part was when I did rest, cease and celebrate, my business wasn’t falling apart. My business was getting better, and my life was getting sweeter because I had time to stop and soak it in. We have to take time to put down our phones and our busy and take time to look at the ones we love. Stop looking for things to worry about and start looking for things to be grateful for. To stop always looking for more to do and complain about and start doing less and allowing God to work it out perfectly. 

5 Steps to rest in the Lord

How do we rest? We know that rest is important to God, but it can be hard to do. Here are my five S’s for how to rest in the Lord.

1. Stop

You have to stop. Stop moving and stop distractions. You have to create stillness in your life. What does this look like for you? Is it a mini sabbath each Saturday? Is it each evening after 6 pm? Maybe it’s a 10-minute pause point in the middle of the day. When are you going to stop? 

Get comfortable with uncomfortable silence. Start practicing the discomfort of not having a distraction. It may wreck you initially, but you will absolutely love it because it will stretch you and show you that you can do hard things. 

2. Surrender

The second step is to surrender. What are you holding onto that will not allow you to enter God’s rest? Control of time? Busyness? Control of your business or finances? What are you controlling that you’re not trusting in God to help you with? Surrender it. Surrender looks like taking all things to Him in prayer.

3. Stillness

Step three is to be still. Once we’ve stopped and surrendered, we need to be still. We need to be quiet for long enough to hear from Him. So how can we be still? First, your fingers are going to itch to grab your phone; then you’ll probably check off a mental list like, “Okay, Lord, I’ve stopped, surrendered, and been still; now it’s time to make dinner.” 

We need to practice being still. This means not grabbing the phone even though you want to; it’s not getting up because it’s weird and uncomfortable to stay seated. It’s about practicing being with yourself and Holy Spirit. Initially, this might be for a couple of minutes but I hope as you practice it will grow and grow. When you are comfortable with stillness, you will hear from God and start to see the gifting He brings you in rest.

4. Soak in His presence

What you’ll experience when you start to practice resting more often is you’ll find those beautiful sweet spots where God washes over you. You’ll find those beautiful, intimate pockets of time where He meets you and sits with you on that couch or walks with you on that hike.

Once you find that, it’s a lot, so you have to practice leaning into it. Conversate with the Lord. Pray a little more audaciously! These are the moments where I get the most incredible downloads, feel the most at rest, and tangibly, physically feel His presence. It’s such a beautiful thing! 

But don’t forget the three steps prior! You’ve got to stop and carve out the time, surrender the stuff you’re holding on to and be still in silence before you can get to this place of soaking.

5. Study scripture

If you want to know God and experience His rest, you’ve got to read the bible. Scripture will renew your mind, keep your heart in the right place, and have you in the right head space every day as you go out there and are bombarded by life. I get it; life is hard. And even harder times seem to be coming, so we’ve got to be yoked up in His word. 

Scripture is our amour and shield, and God is our shepherd. If the Lord is our shepherd and we have all that we need, we can walk through life’s turbulence with rest, peacefulness, and joy, even when it is hard. But we must have our minds and hearts in His word every single day.

Two questions to journal over

Grab some paper and a pen, and journal over these two questions as you dig into your own study on rest. 

1. What would resting in Him look like for you? If you could make it happen, what would it look like? Get rid of all your excuses for a minute, and just for two minutes, journal over: What would it look like? Feel like? What would you do? To be in His presence, with Him, sitting beside Him. 

Experience peace as you walk through life, not anxiety, worry, frustration, or overwhelm. Sure they creep up here and there, but the overarching theme in your life is peace.

2. Where can I fit that in each day/week? You’ve got this! We’ve all got the same amount of time. If God is calling you to rest, the time is there; you’ve just got to make it a priority.

Now go to your planner and write it in. What are you going to do? Even if it’s just 10 minutes of awkward stillness by yourself at 6.30 in the morning. I promise He will meet you there. And suddenly, you’ll look forward to that 6.30 meeting every day. It’s been such a fun exploration of God’s rest for me. And I pray that each of you can find it, experience it, and be blessed by it as much as I have been. 

Finding rest in the Lord is one of the most important things we can do in life. It will bless and transform you in ways you didn’t know were possible. It will also bring an incredible sense of peace to your life and mind when you teach yourself to stop, surrender, be still, soak in His presence and study scripture. Spending time with God is always a valuable use of time. Honor that time; it will change your life.

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

P.S. Also, listen to podcast episode 513 for the full training on Devotional Bible Study: What Does The Bible Say About Rest?

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Hey friend, are you struggling with worldly fears and worries? Let God’s truth help you to transform your heart and mind and glorify the Father!

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