Cultivating Rhythms of Rest

By Jasmine Britto, Kochi KL, India

Scripture Reading

• Exodus 31:15-17
• Leviticus 25:1-5

Holiness & Harmony

God designed and prepared the universe for humans to live. He also designed human bodies to live in tandem and in harmony with the universe.

After creating the universe and man, the Bible says, God rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2-3). You will agree with me that God rested not because he was tired and exhausted, or he needed a break. I believe God told Moses that He rested on the seventh day to tell His people to create a rhythm of living where rhythm of rest is part of it. 

By creating 'night' and ‘day’ (Genesis 1)  he designed a daily rhythm of rest for us. Notice the day starts at night and ends with day, suggesting the day starts with rest, before you start to work. 

By commanding the Sabbath he designed a weekly rhythm of rest. 

He taught the Israelites to have even longer rhythms of rest, by instituting festivals and jubilees.

So, in God’s design there are always rhythms of rest.

In our ‘go, go, go’ world, ‘rest’ is not a very popular word. 

But why is rest important to God?

Why is there capital punishment commanded for anyone who breaks the command of Sabbath, in Exodus 31:15-17? Let’s think about it.

‘Holy’ in the Bible simply means different. We are called not to live our lives, handle our jobs or even do our ministries the way the world does. God says ‘Be Holy as I am Holy’ (1 Peter 1:15). So let’s do things differently in Trust & Obedience.

Trust & Obey 

Our bodies are designed to sleep daily.

Whether we like it or not, our need for rest is engrained into our system. So why do we not like to rest in our everyday lives? Maybe we feel our value is based on our productivity?

Maybe we are worried our lives will fall apart if we aren’t producing from our work. That may be how we feel, but rest is a commandment from God, and we should trust Him and obey Him. We should rest without guilt, because in our day of rest we are obeying God by resting.

What is rest?

It refers to doing nothing related to work for a twenty-four hour period weekly.  It refers to this unit of time around which we are to orient our entire lives as ‘holy’ meaning different.

On sabbaths, we imitate God by stopping our work and resting. 

I grew up as a performance-oriented person, and it sounds sinful for me to just do nothing, especially when there are needs around me. (I also strongly feel I need to be personally available to turn around certain situations in the ministry). I also find it very hard to stop doing things. Before I finish doing something I think about the next unfinished work and, you know, there is always one!

It took a while for me to ‘stop’ everything and get into ‘rest.’ I decided to be organised with all my responsibilities and roles, before I start the rhythm of rest. Once I started getting into a rhythm of rest and I could see myself depending on God more, enjoying Him more and enjoying His grace more, and every time I came out of the rest, I came out refreshed and replenished with peace and joy.

So, how can we rest?

After studying the scriptures on Sabbath and doing some readings, I suggest that we should be sure to get FIVE kinds of rest, and form our rhythm. So before getting into the kinds, I suggest you prepare for the same by being organised with your roles and responsibilities at home and work.

1. Make sure some time is COMPLETELY UNPLANNED.

This means having a day in which you can do whatever comes into your mind and heart to do at the moment. It is like the sabbath year in which the land was given ‘rest’ - it was not planted with anything, and you could eat whatever happened to grow from it. (Lev 25:1-7)

2. Take some AVOCATIONAL time.

An avocation is something that is pleasurable, but that takes some skill. This could be a sport, but it also could be anything from music to gardening. 

This is somewhat like planting a different crop in a field one year in order to replenish nutrients and make the land more fertile for its ordinary produce.

3. Take some MEDITATIVE TIME.

The Bible talks about observing the Sabbath day with coming together and worship, but this is not all we could do. Prayer, solitude, journaling, reading and meditating on scriptures, stopping and considering our emotions, are all crucial ways that replenish our inward resting in Christ. Basically bringing us back in alignment with the scriptures.

4. Take some DELIGHTING time.

The Genesis account indicates that God rested from His work in order to enjoy His creation. Throughout Genesis 1 and 2 we see God viewing all that He has made and saying ‘it is good.' We also need to take time to delight in God’s creations around us…the people He created, the nature, the animals etc.

5. Take time for NURTURING RELATIONSHIPS.

This is time with your family and friends, time set aside to pay full attention to the most important people in your life. Again, we see that this kind of time replenishes and nourishes you in ways that the others cannot.

These forms of rest don’t need to be practiced hardline, with exactly the same amount of time for each. But none of these forms should be completely missing out.

Questions for reflection

1. What are the fears that could stop you from deciding to move into a rhythm of rest?

2. How does it take trust in God, to rest?

3. Is there any guilt connected to rhythms of rest? 

Today I will

Let’s begin by asking God for wisdom, then make plans THIS WEEK to start the rhythm of rest.

About the Author

Jasmine Britto is a women’s ministry leader from Kochi KL, India. She is a civil engineer and became a disciple in 1993. She joined the full-time ministry in 1995. Jasmine married her wonderful husband, John Britto, in 1999. Together they have had the privilege to serve God in different parts of India and in Sri Lanka. The Brittos have two amazing sons - Joash (21) and Jaden (15). “I love studying the Bible deeply and helping other women to love the Word,” Jasmine says. “Also, I love to work with groups of women to help them discover themselves and God. And I love fun and games!”