“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” – Genesis 2:2

In Genesis 2:2 we have the perfect example of how we are called to live and work here on earth. When it comes to the rhythm of work and rest, most of us get it wrong by erring to one side or the other. Some of us are lazy. We do not work when we should be working. We do not finish our work. The Bible is full of warnings against laziness. However, many of us err to the other side and refuse to rest. In fact, in many Christian circles, any rest is looked at as laziness and considered to be ungodly. But look again at Genesis 2:2. Why did God rest? Was it because He couldn’t go on, or was too tired and needed to sit down for a while? Was rest a sign of God’s weakness? No! He rested because rest is good and righteous. He rested so that we can see how important rest is. In fact, the very next verse says God made the seventh day holy, set apart, so we could follow His example and rest. Brothers and sisters, never forsake the spiritual discipline of rest. God is not pleased with a workaholic. Rest is a good and righteous characteristic of a mature believer. Father please remove the cultural constructs that have invaded our mind when it comes to rest and give us the wisdom to cease our work and simply be with You.