Have you ever experienced a long work day or week, and when you reached the end of it, all you wanted to do was to sleep in, and then once you got up, just relax and do nothing for a whole day?

There is a benefit to our physical and mental health in taking a rest such as that.  It can be rejuvenating and refueling to do so.  There’s a place of importance in the idea of resting as it denotes restoration and is a part of our understanding of what is needed to have good health.

In the United States, once a year, we observe Labor Day.  It is a national holiday that is meant to be observed by companies, where they give employees the day off with pay.  People get to stay home and relax and enjoy the day however they wish.

Interestingly, though, many end up doing as much or more work on that day as any other day because they feel like they need to catch up on things around their homes.  Their day of rest turns into a day of exhaustion.

Spiritually speaking, we are meant to enter into rest.  Sabbath in the Hebrew where it originated means to cease, desist, rest, stop.

The idea was for all work to stop for just one day because God created everything in six days, and then He stopped.  It was not like He was exhausted from the work of creation. It was that He was finished and well-pleased with what He had done and ceased to admire it.  God never gets weary, so we know He did not need rest in the way we think of rest.  Rest for God is an on-purpose pause to reflect and enjoy.  So, if we are to rest as He does, we would need to pause and reflect for the purpose of enjoying.

However, this, for a believer in Christ, has become a way of life as opposed to a day.  The writer of Hebrews brings this out.

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

The idea for a New Covenant believer is the practice of bringing an end to their own works for righteousness and living a life of reflecting on the finished work of Christ at the cross.  It can still incorporate a day that is set aside to enjoy rest, relaxation, and reflection, such as our Lord’s Day, when we gather to celebrate Jesus and His finished work.  However, it is speaking of a way of life for the believer now.

Hebrews 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore, a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

The practice of the Sabbath for the believer in Jesus is laying aside the idea that righteousness can be obtained by self-effort and instead is possessed now by faith in the finished work of Christ. The act of ceasing, desisting, stopping, and resting is Sabbath.  In Christ, we get to live the Sabbath because He is our Sabbath.  Have you ceased from your own works?  Are you resting in Christ?  You may observe a day referred to as the Sabbath Day and enjoy resting on that day.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  But if you think that keeping that day is somehow making you righteous or keeping you righteous, you’ve missed the whole point.  A real observance of the Sabbath is resting in the finished work of Christ Jesus.  I sincerely hope you will rest in Him and reflect on His goodness today and always.