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Rest and Worship (Part 1)

I owe the idea for this blogpost to a friend of mine, Dr. Craig Thompson. Craig is the Pastor at Malvern Hill Baptist Church, blogs, and hosts The Ordinary Christian Podcast. Craig hosted Adam Mabry on a recent episode, and they conversed about Mabry’s book, The Art of Rest.

The conversation turned on the need for the Christian to find healthy rhythms of rest and worship in the midst of our busy, achievement-centered culture. Sometimes it seems as if we associate busyness with spirituality. For a Biblical example look at Martha in Luke 10:48-52.

This blogpost is not from an expert. Sure, I can take a nap, but I’m too often guilty of not resting as God has prescribed. I’m not going to get in the details of what we can or cannot do on our day of rest. That’s the kind of legalism that the Pharisees cared about. But God did give us the Sabbath Day for our own spiritual health (Mark 2:27). We need the rest and worship that God commands.

Here are some of the things God is teaching me as I’ve reflected on rest and worship.

  • God models rest for us. In Genesis, God rested on the seventh day of creation. God wasn’t tired. He was modeling a principle that the masterpiece of his creation needed. Jesus himself modeled rest (Mark 5:38). That God modeled rest indicates the importance of setting aside one day a week for rest and worship.
  • God commands us to build rhythms of rest and worship into our schedule. All the way back in the 10 commandments, God commanded his people to observe the Sabbath Day by refraining from regular work and focusing on God in worship. Of course, New Testament believers worship on Sunday, and we are not required to observe the Sabbath Day in a legalistic fashion. Yet we are still obligated to build rhythms of rest and worship into our lives.
  • God invites us to bring our burdens to him. Jesus offered spiritual rest to those who labored (Matthew 11:28-30). God doesn’t need our efforts and energy. Rather, he invites us to trust him and blesses us by taking our burdens. We need to learn to depend on him.

I don’t have this figured out. There are some more things I know God wants to teach me about the specifics of how to rest and worship well. (We’ll explore some more of these next week in part 2). But there is one truth that God has imprinted in my mind that I hope will encourage you.

One of the primary reasons we should observe a rhythm of rest and worship is because God has everything under control.

When I don’t rest well at night, when I am stressed, or when I can’t turn my brain off, it is often because I’m trying to be in control. I’m trying to fix that situation. I’m trying to work out that issue. I’m trying to make something happen. God has certainly called us to be effective and active. And sometimes that’s what we’re doing. But we need to remember that God has everything under control. When we remember this most important truth, we can lay our head down at night in peace. When we remember this most important truth, we can obey God on that one day a week set aside for worship and rest.

Tonight, before you go to sleep (or when you are awake because you can’t sleep), remember that God has everything under control.

This week, when you are worshiping and resting on that special day, remember that God has everything under control.

God is teaching me to observe a rhythm of rest and worship because I need the regular practice of trusting him. How about you?

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Word of the Week: INCARNATION

Last week’s word was Christology. This Wednesday’s word of the week is closely associated with the doctrine of Christ. Incarnation is an important theological term meaning God became man. In last week’s post, we reflected that Jesus is both man and God. Incarnation is the affirmation that God took on human flesh. In John’s account, the Logos, John 1:1 is God. And God took on human flesh.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

In ancient Gnostic thought, the logos, Greek for word reflected the idea that ultimate reality is an idea or concept from the spiritual realm. The Gnostics pursued special, spiritual knowledge. From their Neo-platonic roots, Gnostics held a spirit/matter dualism where the spirit was much more important than matter. Matter was the flesh, was rude, and less important than the spirit. The flesh was merely a mechanism for experiencing the spiritual. What lasted and what was important was the spirit.

But God (logos) became flesh. Jesus is God incarnate (God made man). There are numerous implications for our Christian faith here:

  • The incarnation reflects the goodness of original creation. God made Adam and Eve (male and female) embodied beings. Body and soul both matter.
  • The incarnation necessitates caring for body and soul. That God became flesh (fully God and fully man) emphasizes God’s care for the whole person (body and soul), not merely one’s soul/spirit.
  • The incarnation highlights the humility of Jesus. That Jesus became flesh and humbled himself under the development restrictions of growing in the womb to an adult reveals Jesus’ humility that underscores his longing to reach sinners with salvation.
  • The incarnation shouts the lengths God will go to save his creation. Jesus set aside heaven and traveled to earth to save his creation. No one has ever exceeded this distance to rescue others.
  • The incarnation speaks to the certainty that only Jesus can save. For us to be forgiven, we needed a substitute. We need the incarnation because for a substitute to be sufficient, we need one of us (Jesus in human flesh) and we need someone sufficient to die for the sins of the world (God).

That God would enter into human flesh should stagger us with awe and humility. Would you pause today and worship God who sent Jesus to be the Word made flesh?