Resting in God in a Restless World
Photo Credit: Baptiste Riffard
When was the last time you could describe yourself as rested?
Over coffee with a friend, at the dinner table after a full day, on the phone with family, you are constantly asked the question, “how are you?”
Your answer can seem like an unflattering mirror, especially when your time is spent loving people towards the Lord. You may feel a vast gulf between “how are you?” and “how do you feel you should be?”
Scripture says, “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord” (Isaiah 40:3).
In the wilderness. Not the pastures, not the oasis.
Maybe you have been laboring, attempting to prepare a highway for others to Jesus (Gal. 4:19). The sun is high, your canteen is dry, you are emotionally parched.
A huge reason why we began writing songs as Wind and Sail was because we saw how restless the world is.
In this space of spiritual fatigue, we can discover Jesus has built his own highway to us, a sabbath oasis for us in an overtired world. There is rest available to you!
This article will guide your worn self along a path back to the restful arms of your Heavenly Father. We’ll share what we’ve learned from Scripture, and what informs our songwriting.
We will explore common “rest-robbers” and where God places spiritual oases for his children in a restless world.
But if you want to be grounded in a restful relationship with Jesus, it is critical to first ask . . .
What is God’s rest?
If you are looking to rest in God, what even is this rest that is being offered? We’ve needed to find a clearly articulated answer for this, and have struggled to rest (as you can see in songs like “Look Up”).
Think of the times you have felt most at peace. Vacations, a rare quiet waking calm, being deeply understood by a friend — we often associate rest with spaces where life feels whole.
God’s rest is illustrated in scripture as a garden and a city (Gen. 2:8-15; Ps. 46; Rev. 21:1-5). To our ears, no two places seem more dissimilar than these! But imagine this:
In a garden diverse elements balance together, creating a biome of beauty. Walking paths contrast flower beds, vines climb trellises.
A city is like a garden of humanity - instead of plants, there are people. It may feel overgrown with rush hour traffic, and crowded buildings, yet . . .
Picture a city where all things play together in harmony - where mercy is loved, justice is done, beauty is made.
When you envision this, you actually see the way life was meant to be: because of the cross, Jesus is bringing everything together towards rest.
That which began with a garden will end with a city. God placed his children, his self-portrait, in a space of potential - now he fills us to further fill his spaces with more creation.
In Eden and the New Jerusalem, we see places that are complete and free to grow boundlessly fuller. This is the core of God’s rest.
God’s rest is not dormancy or disengagement; rather it is the established security of his loving rule over his living creation.
Scripture encapsulates this in the Hebrew word, “shalom”.
Shalom
When God rested at the end of Creation it was not because he needed a break, it was because all things were as he intended.
When Christ cried out “It is finished!” from the cross, it was because the fracture of sin had been bridged.
God’s rest then is his indisputable accomplishment of his will.
This is what shalom means and has meant through the generations…
Ancient rabbis defined shalom as a paradigm of “nothing missing, nothing broken”.
Julian of Norwich said, “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”
T.S. Eliot calls God’s rest, “the still point, / There would be no dance, but there is only dance”.
His shalom rest is a dance between the strong constancy of his will and the dynamic world where he works. Form from void, gardens from deserts, cities from wastelands. Check out the unreleased, live recording of our song “Shalom” →
Reason for Rest
Why can you rest? Because God made you for rest - that place of blessing where you are at peace with Jesus being in control, freed to live as he has intended - endlessly with him (Heb. 4:9-10).
Jesus gave this rest to you, gave it as something that is, as the cornerstone for your life to be grounded by.
This turns God’s rest into an invitation to begin resting in God, to let his reality define yours.
Perhaps this is where we throw up our hands and say, “But if this is real and sure, why is it so difficult to live rested?”
Because there are robbers along the way.
Rest-robbers
The human condition could be defined as our inability to rest.
Maybe you’ve been traveling along the way, wanting to feel closer to the Lord, working to guide others to know Jesus more deeply.
Interestingly, embarking on the journey of making music as Wind and Sail has really challenged our rest. Our music aims to acknowledge the soul-cracks our peace leaks out of, pointing to Jesus as the infinite well of hope. But—as you might discern from our lyrics—this is often a wrestling match (Gen. 32:22-32).
When you are tired, paradoxically, the most unnatural thing can be to stop. Rest might feel unwise or even unsafe.
Have you felt:
If I slow down to take care of my soul, others will be neglected. I can’t afford to let others down just to be refreshed.
There was a time I felt secure in God’s rest, but I’ve gotten stuck in my current life rhythms, and can’t find an easy way back.
If I take my foot off of the pedal, I am afraid God won’t pick up the slack, and I’ll fall.
I have a really hard time figuring out God’s will for my life, so it is difficult to be at peace.
I am helping other people in really serious crises. My own life doesn’t seem nearly as hard - I can’t justify rest when my life is comparatively easier.
You don’t know how hard I am trying to hold everything together - my work, my relationships, myself - if I pause, everything will unravel.
If God’s rest is lovingly established security, unrest is anxiously questioning insecurity.
We can be tempted to say that rest looks like less busyness - and in a culture where studies show negative stress is suggested to correlate to overtime hours worked, this is not far from the mark.
But unrest doesn’t come from our action or inaction, it flows out of our mindset.
A garden-mindset is built on the paradigm of the love of God - where your work is done under the easy yoke of Jesus.
A desert-mindset runs on a different economy. An economy of stress . . . where self-worth is a fluctuating commodity . . . where peace is won by performance . . . an economy that does not believe in the bonafide value of the redeemed image of God.
How can you tell which mindset you are living in? Consider the price you have been paying.
Price conveys value, but it also communicates currency.
Perhaps you have been paying too high a price. For your ministry. For your future prospects. Perhaps you have been using a currency foreign to the kingdom of God.
Robbers take what is already yours. Child of God, you do not need to buy the rest Jesus purchased for you on the cross! You don’t need to let robbers turn his garden into a desert.
What is resting in God?
Picture a garden. Resting in God is like a row of beautiful hydrangea bushes. The best condition for the flowers–their intended situation–is to be planted in the soil.
They thrive when tended under the knowing hand of the gardener - he husbands the soil, knowing what is needed to help the garden flourish.
How crazy would it be if, instead of being rooted, the bush hovered 6 inches above the ground? It would be completely contrary to its design - it wouldn’t make sense for the roots to be dangling above the rich dirt, seeing but never nestled in.
Resting in God is allowing his loving hand to set you in his garden. No longer trying to live outside the good soil, but being settled in the life he has prepared for you.
Psalm 116 as a pattern for rest
The Psalmist cried out,
Return to your rest, my soul,
for the Lord has been good to you.
For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,
my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling
that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living. (Ps. 116:7-9, NIV)
1. Rest is a return
The Lord built the world on a foundation of rest. Resting in God is not discovering a new thing, it is being restored back into what has always been.
Return to your rest - the Hebrew here carries the connotation of retreating; resting in God is a tower you can hide in. When you are in Jesus’ yoke, that tower goes with you.
The gift of God’s Spirit in you means that, wherever you are, you can return to the rest Jesus bought for you on the cross. Gwyneth Lewis framed it as, “A coming home to something brand new but always known”.
My soul - the word “nephesh” here is the same Moses uses when he tells the Israelites to “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your strength (Deut. 6:5).”
It is your all - your hopes, desires, attitudes - the core of you and all of your outworkings.
There is no part of you that is unable to be returned to rest.
2. Rest is remembering
Christian rest is not simply a nice idea. Resting in God is remembering and leaning on the fact that:
He is good
He loves me
He is sovereign over everything
He has a plan for my life
He has a master plan for all reality
He’s made a place for me through the blood of Jesus
He will never lose me or leave me
He’s making everything new
He will finish what he started
Resting in God is not closing your eyes to hard things. It is being awake to how God is bringing his shalom into those places. Malcolm Guite penned this as, “love is the waking life”.
The psalmist’s reason for rest was God delivered him from death, from tears, from stumbling. What might yours be?
3. Rest is a road
God offers his rest to you so you can walk with him now, today, “in the land of the living.”
Consider this - rest is a calling. In a restless world, Jesus came and promised a Kingdom of rest.
We were made for rest, and saved to be restored to rest.
What a relief!
Then, rest is also our biggest witness. You will make more change in your heart, home, and community by authentically resting in the Lord than by doing a thousand frantic things in Jesus’ name.
So if rest is your calling, then rest is Jesus saying “follow me.”
Ways to rest in Jesus
Let’s consider patterns for rest you can lean into:
Rest in a moment
When anxious thoughts assault me, my quick retreat into the shalom of God is in breath prayers.
Breath prayers are a simple way to align our thoughts, our body, and our soul with the reality of God. As you breathe in and out, you let the words of truth ride on your breath.
There are many, and you can turn any scripture into one! My favorite is:
Lord Jesus Christ (in)
Son of the living God (out)
Have mercy on me (in)
A sinner (out)
This can remind you of the shelter of God.
Rest in the day
Days seem to always get full, don’t they? Let Jesus lead you by having scripture thoughtfully fill you.
If you feel stressed by having time in the Word, it can be helpful to find a practice that leads you into rest. God didn’t give us his Word for us to perform for him, he gave it so that we can know and rest in him.
One practice that has helped the church through the ages is lectio divina. This is a way to sit slowly in passage, let your heart calm down, and give the Spirit space to bring you close.
Rest in the week
The week is the fundamental unit of time shaping our lives. How amazing is it that Jesus built a day to rest into that framework!
Practicing a sabbath day was commanded to the Israelites because, as wandering worriers, we are quick to rebel against the notion that God holds loving control over his world.
Laying aside work for a day may feel like a sacrifice, it may trigger our rest-robbers, but it will create a space for our faith in the Lord’s goodness to be met with his provision.
Rest in the music
Songs are transpirational - they can help us get out from where we are stuck, and bring us to better, more beautiful lands. They can meet us where we are — giving words and images that match our emotions, helping us feel known.
Paul says that the human heart was made to be a chamber, a vessel filled with Psalms and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19).
This is why Abby and I write music — to clothe moments of life with truth and beauty, hope and connection.
We have made a playlist for you of songs that have given us rest:
As you go
You are not building a highway in the desert, you are uncovering one already there.
The wasteland is a garden covered in dust. Let the breath of Christ blow it off and guide you.
It will be a future boulevard.
As you learn to relinquish and relax in the rest of God, your leadership, family, community, and work will begin to have their dry cracks filled with the kindness of Jesus, as he makes all things new.
Some additional resources to help you on your journey towards deep rest in the Lord:
Gentle and Lowly - Dane Ortlund has laid out beautiful steps and rhythms to learn how to live restfully in relationship with Jesus.
Revisit Psalm 116 - journal your own autobiographical interpretation of the text, and offer it as a heart prayer to God.
We’d love for our music to be something that helps you rest in the craze. “Evensong” is especially about finding peace in the wild.