“REST”
1. Sabbath as Warfare
Rest was never weakness. It was God’s battle strategy. He built it into creation on the seventh day to show that His power holds the world together, not ours. When I resisted rest, it was usually because I thought everything depended on me. Proving I was still living and thinking like a slave, not a son. Sabbath is the weekly declaration: “Jesus, You are God and I am not.”
2. Rest = Alignment, Not Escape
Hebrews 4 talks about a “Sabbath rest for the people of God.” It isn’t about Sunday naps, it’s a spiritual posture. To “enter His rest” is to step out of striving, self salvation, and constant proving, and step into alignment with His finished and complete work. Rest is when my soul finally stops performing and simply receives.
3. Rest Requires Trust
Israel failed to REST in the wilderness not because they were tired but because they didn’t trust God to provide. That’s the human story, unbelief leads to restless striving. Faith leads to rest. When I found myself exhausted, it wasn’t just because of workload, it was because I was carrying burdens I didn’t trust God with.
4. Rest as Rhythm
Biblical rest isn’t occasional. It’s rhythm. Work six, rest one. Pour out, get filled. Without it, even good things (business, leadership, fatherhood) burn you out. With it, you multiply because you’re working from overflow, not depletion.
5. Rest as Identity
True rest comes when you know you’re already chosen, already loved. That’s why Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). He wasn’t offering a nap. He was offering an identity in Him, instead of performance in me.
REST isn’t what you do at the end of the week when you’re drained, it’s the place you live from, every day.
Rest is the starting point, not the finish line.
Rest… it’s not the absence of work, it’s the presence of trust.
