“Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:12,15).
In nearly all aspects of life, rest is something earned. That’s the way the world works. Work hard, put in your 40, 50, or 60 hours—the weekend is yours. You’ve earned it. Rest.
It’s so easy to forget, but that’s not how God works. That’s not how we obtain spiritual rest—rest from guilt, worry, shame, and hopelessness. In fact, the harder we work to gain even the smallest sliver of spiritual rest, the more exhausted, weary, and burdened we become. All of our work will never be enough. And the devil takes those attempts and whispers accusations: Be better. Try harder. You call yourself a Christian? Christians don’t do what you keep doing. You don’t deserve to rest.
Dear Christian, listen. Listen to our Savior’s words. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest”(Matthew 11:28). Let those words from our Savior live in your hearts and minds. He gives us rest through faith in him.
That was the whole point of the Sabbath. God wanted his people to rest and remember. To rest from their labors and to remember that when they were slaves in Egypt, God rescued them. He delivered them with his mighty hand and outstretched arm. How would they remember? By spending time in worship. By hearing of God’s great mercy and love. By hearing his promises of life and salvation to his people through the promised Messiah.
God wanted his people to focus on and remember his wondrous acts of love and mercy each Sabbath Day. And while the Sabbath is no longer something we observe as Christians because Jesus has fulfilled the law for us, God still wants us to gather together—to rest and remember.
We need that.
We can get so wrapped up in all the things that we do as Christians—for God and for our neighbor—that we miss out on the joy and the rest that are already ours because of Jesus.
Life is exhausting enough—and we desperately need spiritual rest from our sins, guilt, and shame—but so often our understanding of rest gets warped with the worldly view of rest being earned! We might not think we can earn salvation for ourselves. We think this way instead: I’ll feel more at peace when I’m a better son, a better daughter, brother, sister, mother, father, employee—a better Christian—I just have to try harder. I just have to work harder. . . . Those exhausting thoughts might be more familiar, and the list of things we can do better never gets any shorter because we inevitably fail time and time again to be better. We’re sinful. We need a Savior.
When we fall into that mindset, dear Christian, we put the focus on ourselves instead of where it needs to be. We lose sight of what our loving and gracious God has done and is doing for us right here and now! Fix your eyes on Jesus. Listen to him.
Listen to the one who says to you in his Word and sacraments: “Come to me! I see that you are weary and burdened. I see sin’s crushing weight, life’s sorrows, and the guilt and shame you can’t get rid of. Come to me. Listen to my Word. Hear what I have done for you. Look to the baptismal font and remember: There I washed you and made you my dearly loved child. You are mine! Look to the cross—remember the victory I won for you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. I have taken away your guilt and shame—they are gone. I have freed you from slavery to sin—there’s nothing you need to do to earn my love. It’s yours. Come to my Supper. Take and eat the bread; it is my body, given for you. Take and drink the wine; it is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins. You have peace with God now and forever. You have peace because of me. So come to me. I will give you rest.”
Dear Christian, today, just . . . rest. Put down your burdens. Lay them at your Savior’s feet and know that he holds you in his loving arms. Rest and remember what Jesus has done for you, the rest that he has graciously, lovingly, given to you.
Looking for more reading? Our Worth to Him: Devotions for Christian Worship is a collection of short devotions by popular NPH author Pastor Mark Paustian. The devotions explore the nature of Christian worship and what it means to gather in Jesus’ name. As you read this book, you’ll gain a fresh understanding of the church year, the sacraments, the worship space, and much more!
Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.