Day of rest

Read Genesis 2:1-3

God spend 6 days crafting all of creation, and then what does he decide to do at the end?…Rest. This wasn’t a rest from any form of labour, for we know God is at all times upholding his creation. But it was rather a declaration that that which he set out to do he has accomplished and he now sits down to enjoy it. He ceases from his work to walk with Adam in the cooling of the evening, he sits back and delights in what he has made.

How far this seems from the world we live in. Do we not all live with an endless list of things to do? Does not the world seem endlessly filled with unsolvable problems? Is there not always another pothole for a council worker to patch up? This life is one of continuous work, especially because we live in a sinful world which is characterized by its decay. Everything in this world eventually breaks downs and dies.

So too we create endless work for ourselves as well, constantly trying to make it somewhere in our lives, there is always something to improve, something we want to change. All of us have an in-built desire to prove ourselves to show we have something of worth, some reason to be admired and appreciated. And we are constantly chasing that admiration.

Yet when Jesus came, he put an end to that endless work, that constant pursuit to prove that we are worthy, when he said “It is finished” upon the cross. What he meant? All that work to show ourselves as worthy, to be deserving of something before God has been done by him.

You can now be approved by and loved by the most holy and supreme person in all the universe. There is no court of opinion that matters more and Jesus has done everything that we might be worthy before him.

Do you believe you are a bad mother or father? A failure in life? Do you feel that you are a sinner deserving of wrath? Good because we are all of those things none of us are good enough, but now when we find ourselves despairing in all our failures we can be reminded that is not who we are before God.

He does not see a failure, or a bad parent, or even a sinner? He sees his beloved child, clothed in perfect righteousness of Jesus. We must come to accept we all suck at everything; there is nothing we do right.

But the solution is not found in working harder, but rather resting in Jesus’ work rather than our own. The true sabbath rest we can now enjoy is knowing the work of making us righteous before God has been complete and now, we are approved by him always.

Prayer

“Lord thank you for this rest, from ceasing to prove ourselves as worthy. You have approved by us through Christ sacrifice on the cross. Help us to rest in you.”